Violinist and composer Maria Kaneko Millar has performed as a soloist throughout Canada, Ireland, China, Japan, Mexico and the US; her work has been featured by The Canadian, British and American Broadcasting Corporations as well as Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center and The Gershwin Theatre on Broadway.  Maria currently tours North America alongside flutist Shawn Wyckoff as Sonic Escape.  Their performances – reaching 100,000+ audience members in 45 provinces & states so far – use singing, dancing, storytelling, audience interaction, and above all, hyper-instrumentals to create an experience that is “wonderfully imaginative… with an anything goes sense of fun.”  (The Washington Post)

170 performances as the Solo Dancing Fiddler in Riverdance On Broadway and the North American and Asian Tours of Riverdance: The Show featured Maria’s improvised solos and simultaneous dance.  She also performed in Radio City Music Hall’s One World Jam and premiered her creation for dancing violinist on CBC’s nationally-televised The Great Canadian Music Dream.

Maria’s compositions have sold as sheet music in 40 countries.  In 2019, her solo violin creation Sakura – licensed by the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music – had a first-run printing of 12,400 copies sold in 93 countries.  Maria’s great passion is improvisation: her arrangements and aural transcriptions of Asian, Celtic, Gypsy, Klezmer, Tango, Turkish, blues, jazz, pop, rock and classical music have laid the foundation for fearless ad-libbing in any setting.  Maria holds accelerated BM/MM’s in Violin Performance from The Juilliard School.