Maya Zita
Maya Tisdale (Maya Zita) is a singer/songwriter, model and upcoming artist who plans to bring a new alternative sound to the pop music industry. Maya was born on June 13th 2001 in Toronto, Canada. Interesting fact, she was born on the thirteenth minute of the thirteenth hour and the letter "M" is the thirteenth letter of the alphabet. Maya started her music journey at the young age of seven. Her class was hosting a talent show and she decided to perform "Allegria" by Cirque du Soleil which is a difficult song in Latin, Italian and English. It was a huge success and the teacher even asked other teachers to come watch her rendition of the song. Having the determination to learn the dictation of these languages and the natural gift of pitch, tone and vibrato, her mother's family truly believes that her voice is a gift from God. Maya's parents put her in voice lessons at Melody School of Music to study classical music and theory and to perform at the institutions annual recitals; she did this until she turned fourteen. She has been studying and performing classical music ever since. In 2009 she started singing in her school choir and since then has performed in her post secondary choirs and attended various choirs like Viva Youth Singers of Toronto Main, Chamber Chorus and Beach Hill Choir. In 2012 Maya wrote her first song called "Moonlight in The Sky" and has been writing ever since. She wrote the song spontaneously in the middle of the night because she had to get the idea out of her head. In September 2014, Maya had her first professional gig performing with pianist David Warrack at St. George's United Church. In December, Maya was granted an Ontario Arts Scholarship to study opera with the talented soprano Ilana Zakankin; she studied with her for two years. In February 2015, she applied for the prestigious specialized arts high school Cardinal Carter Academy For The Arts and was accepted to enrol for grade 10. This is a difficult grade to be accepted into since there's limited spots compared to enrolling in grade 9 or 7 which was accepting entire classes. The only spots available would be dropouts which entailed no more than one or two students. Additionally Maya was required to have an RCM theory level 4 certificate in order to qualify. She was unable to afford theory lessons for a few years, so she had to independently study and take the RCM exam which she passed with flying colours. That summer Maya landed a gig as a session vocalist for a client of Juno Nominee Harrison Fine at his old studio FINE Productions. He believed in her talent and decided to record her and produce instrumentals for her songs. They have been making music together since then. Maya has also been working with many other great producers such as Ben Pelchat who has worked with Snoop Dogg and Daniel Zebarth. After taking a modelling course at Antibes Community Centre, she began pursuing a modelling career and freelancing work. Maya has worked for a few Canadian agencies and freelances modelling work to this day. During her time enrolled in Cardinal Carter, she received multiple solos in various choral and contemporary performances. In 2018 she had the privilege to be chosen as the lead actress in the school musical, "Joseph and The Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat". That year she was also chosen to be Cardinal Carter's jazz band singer. They competed in the Kiwanis Music Festival which they placed first for best vocalists. They also travelled to Whistler BC in the spring and performed in the Cantando Music Festival which also received a gold rating from the judges. That summer, Maya faced some difficult medical, relationship and family problems. She worked hard to graduate early from school in February 2019 to begin working full-time; trying to find out who she was and what she truly wanted to do. Maya decided she wanted to continue being a singer, artist, songwriter and model. She began developing her brand and the release of her first single, "Ouija Board", in January 2020. Maya also wanted learn to produce and to continue developing her voice. In February 2020, she auditioned and was accepted into Canada's elite music school Metalworks Institute that is taught in the vicinity of their world renowned recording studio, Metalworks Studio. Celebrity artists like Christina Aguilera, Drake, Prince, Rush, and Demi Lovato have recorded there during their careers. During the pandemic which started in March 2020, Maya wrote many songs which she is in the process of refining and releasing and also learned guitar and piano. She began studying at Metalworks in September 2020. Maya successfully released her first single, "Ouija Board" in January 2021 and has appeared on CTV Ottawa to perform the single live. She has also been interviewed by several blogs about the song. Something that makes Maya special is that she is also a visual artist. She creates artwork and costumes for her music videos to give them a unique aesthetic and style. With many songs in the works, Maya wants to promote a message of self love and healing to her followers. She most importantly wants to inspire her fans (known as Zitas) to strive for greatness. She says to "Shoot for the Sun because it's the biggest star." (No its not actually the biggest star but its one of them!) This only marks the beginning of her career as an artist.