Maria Paula Survilla

When she was five, the family moved to Canada and at school Survilla learned English, her fourth language.[1]

Like her mother, a prominent defender of Belarus culture,[2] Survilla became an activist at a young age, founding and chairing the Youth Canadian Ethnocultural Council. At the University of Ottawa, she studied ethnomusicology, graduated with her B.A. in music (clarinet, 1987)[3] and became a member of the Governor General's Foot Guards Band. She also worked as a tour guide, taking visitors through the Parliament and the Governor General's Residence.[1]

In 1987, Survilla married Eric Wachmann and they moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan, so she could begin work on her M.A. degree at the University of Michigan.[1] Her master's thesis was titled Music and Identity: Byelorussians Making Music in North America.[2]

In 1991, Survilla received a Fulbright Scholarship, which allowed her to conduct original research in Białystok, Poland[2] and then Belarus.[4] Her work resulted in her dissertation Of Mermaids and Rock Singers, with which she earned her Ph.D. in Ethnomusicology at the University of Michigan.[1][3] Hers was the first dissertation written on this topic at the University of Michigan.[2]

After her research, she taught at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and moved with her husband to Waverly, Iowa, where they both became professors at Wartburg College. Survilla taught both ethnomusicology and musicology as well as humanities classes. Continuing her work as an activist, she initiated college projects that included the Humanities Think Tank and the Hearthside Series.[1]

She also pursued other activities, according to her obituary,

In 2008, Paula was appointed as the Executive Director for the Center for Belarusian Studies, an independent educational center founded by Ambassador (ret.) David Schwarz. The Center (now Foundation) relocated to Waverly and is one of the largest research centers of Belarusian politics and history outside of Belarus.[1]

Maria Paula Survilla was a member of the Rada of the Belarusian Democratic Republic, the historical Belarusian state institution in exile.[5]

Survilla died in Waverly on April 25, 2020, at the age of 56 from Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease.[6] She was survived by her husband Eric Wachmann, a musician and professor of music, and their two sons, Vaalik, and Anton Wachmann.[1][3][4]