Mariana Ivanovna’s friends joke that her accent is confused. Not quite Russian, not quite Mexican, it’s one of the first noticeable vestiges of her past, and a reflection of the Valentine’s Day baby’s mixed heritage.
The tall brunette has the stature of an eastern European model but “I feel more Mexican than anything,” she admits. Moving between continents was child’s play for the daughter of two parents from two very different sides of the world — then-Soviet Russia and Mexico. Eventually, Ivanovna’s globetrotting brought her to Tucson, to the UA, and to the stage at this year’s Spring Fling.
After moving from Moldova to Mexico as a toddler, Ivanovna spent close to a decade south of the border, where she started to learn piano and began her preteen life. She got a keyboard as a Christmas gift at age 8, but said she felt uninspired by private piano lessons in Mexico. Everything changed when her father got a job in Tucson, and what was supposed to be a year or two stateside turned into a permanent position and a life-altering shift for Ivanovna at age 11.
“That’s when I started writing,” she said. She explained that she didn’t know much English, so her feelings were more easily expressed in letters, which turned into poems, and then into songs. A foray into two years of opera singing, which she soon shed for her high school’s show choir, helped her love for performance grow from a hobby into a passion. She knew it was what she wanted to do.
“But education, that’s been something that’s been hammered in,” Ivanovna said with a laugh. “You have to have something to rely on. Marketing, I felt, was something I could use. Music is my passion. Marketing, it’s insurance if my passion doesn’t work out.”
So she enrolled at the UA with aspirations that marketing would support her singing career. In fact, it’s the reason why she’s performing at Spring Fling.
In a marketing class, students came up with a Honda campaign for the annual Associated Students of the University of Arizona event. Ivanovna decided instead of finding another attraction, she could just become part of the entertainment.
This Saturday, fair-goers will hear three of Ivanovna’s songs, which she also wrote and produced, and are featured on her freshman album “Nada Keda D’ Mi.” She said she hopes that after graduation, she’ll be able to launch the album in Mexico City with her father, who is also her manager.
A self-proclaimed “daughter of the world,” Ivanovna said she hopes her Spanish pop-rock album will gain traction in Mexico City. Her end goal is to head her own independent label, and then cross over into an American music marketplace that’s more competitive, but also allows for more exposure.
If you go
Mariana Ivanovna will perform at ASUA’s Spring Fling 2012 on Saturday.
