Margarita Mazo, professor emerita and Distinguished Scholar, is internationally known for her research on Russian music. She has published on Russian vernacular traditions, music of Stravinsky, Shostakovich, and music and musical life in Post-Soviet Russia. Based on her field research in Russia and the United States, the Smithsonian Festival of American Folklife (Smithsonian Institution) produced two Russian programs, "Musics from the USSR" and "Russian Roots, American Branches." On invitation from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Mazo presented a series of lectures for the first American festival of Shostakovich's music, led by Maestro Mstislav Rostropovich. Her most recent major publication is a new edition of Igor Stravinsky's Les Noces. Dr. Mazo is a founder of the Ohio State program in cognitive ethnomusicology, unique nationwide; she has also created a new interdisciplinary Study Abroad program on Russian Opera and Identity Today. Prior to The Ohio State University, Dr. Mazo taught at Leningrad (presently St. Petersburg) Conservatory, New England Conservatory of Music, and Harvard University.

Professor Mazo received her PhD from the Leningrad Conservatory.