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School of Music

Office: Room 212
Phone: (309)-556-3028
Email:  marruago@iwu.edu

Violinist Maria Arrua leads an active career performing and teaching in the Greater Chicago area. She currently serves as Concertmaster of the Champaign Urbana Symphony Orchestra as well as section violin of the Illinois Philharmonic Orchestra, Elgin and Northwest Indiana Symphony Orchestras. She is an Adjunct Instructor at Illinois Wesleyan University where she teaches violin.

Dr. Arrua has appeared as a soloist with the National Symphony Orchestra of Paraguay, the Orchestra of the Congress of Paraguay, the Champaign Urbana Symphony Orchestra, the Symphony Orchestra of the City of Asuncion, the Chamber Orchestra of the Municipality of Asuncion, the University of Chicago Chamber Orchestra, the Chicago Sinfonietta, the State College Summer Orchestra, and the Penn State Philharmonic Orchestra. She has also performed with the symphony orchestras of Paraguay, Illinois, Grant Park, Mississippi, Baton Rouge, Champaign, and Acadiana, as well as Sinfonia da Camera, Louisiana Sinfonietta, and the Civic Orchestra of Chicago.

Born in Paraguay, Dr. Arrua began her musical training at the age 10 at the National Conservatory of Music of Paraguay. During her studies at the Conservatory, Dr. Arrua served as Assistant Concertmaster of the National Symphony Orchestra. In 2011 she graduated Summa Cum Laude from Louisiana State University, where she earned a Bachelor of Music in Violin Performance studying under Dr. Lin He. Following that, she continued her graduate studies in performance at Pennsylvania State University working with James Lyon. She completed her Doctorate in Musical Arts in 2021 at the
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, studying under Nelson Lee and the Jupiter String Quartet.

She has performed in several music festivals, including the David Kim Orchestral Institute, Pine Mountain Music Festival, Grant Park Music Festival, Brevard Music Center, Aspen Music Festival, Castleman Quartet Program and Festival Nas Montanhas.