Ever since Maya Krivchenia was a little girl, she had felt a connection to Russian culture, despite living her entire life in the United States.

Krivchenia’s great grandfather was an immigrant from the former Soviet Union.

“I always grew up with Russian things around me in my house, like little Russian toys,” Krivchenia said. “I got into Russian music because I felt some sort of pull to it I think through my family and my heritage and through my father, grandfather and great grandfather.”

It wasn’t until she started studying music as a professional student that Krivchenia was able to fully immerse herself in Russian musical culture.

She first studied at Eastman School of Music in Rochester, N.Y. from 1999 until 2003. After that she received her Master’s of Fine Arts at Ohio State University studying under the guidance of Karen Peeler in the music school from 2003 to 2006.

During her time at OSU, Krivchenia was awarded the coveted Fulbright Fellowship Award, which allowed her to study in Russia for a year from 2005 to 2006.

The Fulbright Fellowship program supported by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. The program is primarily an international exchange program that focuses on bringing talents from various parts of the globe together.

“You can’t really study Russian music in the U.S.,” Krivchenia said. “If you really want to study Russian music you need to go to Russia, and so I decided to do that.”

During her fellowship, Krivchenia studied at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia. The theater is a historic opera and ballet theater that opened in 1860 and was the home of many renowned Russian composers and performers throughout the 19th century.

Krivchenia returned to OSU after a year and finished her degree, but while in Russia she was accepted to the Mariinsky Young Singers Academy, of which she is still studying under.

After completing her degree at OSU, Krivchenia returned to study in St. Petersburg for two years and is currently in the U.S. working to renew her visa so that she can continue her overseas studying.

Aside from the familial heritage and Krivchenia’s fascination with the Russian language, she said that one of the things that intrigues her the most about Russian music is that it is totally foreign to her, despite having studied vocal performance for most of her life.

“It’s really exciting because it’s like I’m discovering something new,” Krivchenia said.

“Because in America you can study French music, you can study German music, you can study Italian music. Not every voice teacher knows the Russian language so they can’t teach you that, whereas the other languages are just standard musical styles.”

Krivchenia loves to explore and find new Russian composers that no one has ever heard of, unlike Mozart or Bach. It is like “discovering diamonds somewhere,” she said.

Krivchenia focuses mostly on classical Russian composers, such as Mikhail Glinka, Sergei Rachmaninoff, and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.

When Krivchenia performs at the Weigel Auditorium on Monday with Edward Bak on piano, her first set of music will be a group of poems from Russian poet Anna Akhmatova.

Akhmatova was a poet in the Stalin era in the Soviet Union and represents a very interesting time period of Russian history.

The second set of songs that she will perform is works of Tchaikovsky, which explore human relationships, most notably friendships and longing.

Her final focus will be on the work of Rachmaninoff and some of his more popular classical compositions.

“Often times in Russian poetry and music, the words might seem happy but there is some sort of dark undertone there, almost like there is a mask of happiness there on top of something deeper, something with a lot more emotional depth to it,” Krivchenia said.

Her final piece, however, will be a poem from the famous novel in verse, “Eugene Onegin,” by Tchaikovsky. Tatyana, the main female character, is a quintessential Russian woman and gives her heart to a man that doesn’t realize her value until she has married another man. She remains loyal to her husband but is very lonely and torn.

Krivchenia plans on returning to Russia and continuing with the Mariinsky Young Singers Academy, which will prepare her for a professional career in Russian vocal performance.

Her performance at Weigel Auditorium is at 7 p.m. on Monday. Admission is $12, or $6 for students with an ID.