Mayra Muhammad-kyzy was born and raised in China. Her grandfathers emigrated to China from the Kazakh steppes in the 1930s, fleeing from the arbitrariness of Soviet rule. Her musical parents taught her to play the piano and sing, recorded in the local music school. In 1987, she graduated from the music faculty of the Central University of Peoples of China, and later the Beijing Conservatory, where she studied with Guo Shu Jen. Since 1987, Mayra has actively participated in the country, she took part in the all-Chinese vocal competition "Golden Dragon", and also taught at the university for six years. But, the China-based Beijing Opera put only two European opera performances a year. In 1991, Mayra traveled to Moscow with her husband Aksan and auditioned at the Moscow Conservatory - she was immediately given a recommendation for postgraduate study. But she did not have permission.In 1994, Mayra again found herself in Moscow as part of the soloists from China at the Tchaikovsky Competition, from which she literally fled to Kazakhstan, to her historic homeland. But Kazakh citizenship was received only two years later, thanks to a meeting with President Nazarbayev and PRC PresidentJiang Zemin, and later managed to transport the entire family. Mayra was fluent in her native Kazakh and Chinese languages, but she did not know Russian or Italian or French, while the main operas from world classics were performed in these languages. In Almaty, she began her internship at the Kazakh National Conservatory. where she studied with Nadia Sharipova. She lived with her husband for several years in a rented apartment. In 1995, Mayra Muhamed-kyzy was awarded a special diploma for artistry in St. Petersburg at the 1st International Rimsky-Korsakov Young Opera Singers Competition. In 1996 she auditioned and became one of the singers of the GAOB Abai in Almaty. In 1997, she received an invitation to an international contest of opera singers in Portugal. Theater director K. G. Urazgaliev helped with her ticket. 66 performers from 17 countries took part in the competition, but Mayra won the Grand Prize of 10,000 US dollars.. In 1998, at the International Tchaikovsky Competition, she was in the lead, but she won the 3rd laureate place. In the republic her skill was finally recognized: she was awarded the title of Honored Artist. In 2002, Mayra won a two-year contract in Paris Opera. Already in France, she adopted the pseudonym Maira Kerey, and for six months she studied French, and then Italian and English. She made her debut in Giacomo Puccini's opera La Bohème. She performed Musette's part. This part takes a special place in her work. The singer herself calls her "role number 1", since it was her performance in 2003 in Paris, In December 2015, Mayra was invited to Astana Opera as a leading soloist.
"I would give her the first prize, based on a single consideration: if now there was an opera poster with her name somewhere, I would definitely go to her performance - I can not say anything about one other participant. is fresh, sonorous, beautiful, in the artistic nature there is a delightful eastern transparency, almost all the difficulties were successful - I wanted to listen with bated breath ".
Gay City News wrote: "Myra Kerey demonstrated an exciting performance, a bright and strong soprano."
"Myra Kerey's brilliant debut took place with her bright, crystal-clear voice, which should return here in a bigger role," wrote The Washington Times
