Maria Popa studied at the Gheorghe Dima Music Academy in Cluj-Napoca, one of the most important cultural centers in Transylvania. In university productions she appeared on stage as Prince Orlofsky Die Fledermaus (Strauss), and sang Paggio della duchessa in Verdi's Rigoletto at the Romanian National Opera Cluj-Napoca. Maria Popa had ten years of violin lessons before she decided to sing opera. In 2010 she took 1st place in the National Singing Contest in Bistrita, Romania and was a semi-finalist in the New Voices competition of the Bertelsmann Foundation in Gütersloh. From 2014/15 to the end of the 2015/16 season she was a member of the opera studio of the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in the 2015/16 season as Giovanna (Verdi) Rigoletto, Sandmännchen (Humperdinck) Hansel and Gretel, Dryste (Strauss) Ariadne auf Naxos as well as in Der Rosenkavalier (Strauss) Werther (Massenei) and as the flower woman in the world premiere of the children's opera The Snow Queen (Long) to see.