A Legend that will never die Maria Björnson

Maria Björnson was regarded one of the most talent costume designer for opera and theatre in Britain. Maria electrified the public with her wild and imaginative stage and costume design for Phantom of the Opera in 1986 and went on to dazzle all who saw the many productions she designed over the years, those who worked with her, and her large circle of passionately devoted friends. They admired and loved her for her luck of ego, her unique creative genius, her generosity, her emotional vulnerability ,and her wonderful sense of humour. Maria life was the intense creative fulfillment. From early childhood she drew page after page of brightly costume people. It was a world full of colors, drama and whirling fabric, jewels and feathers. When she was young her mother took her to meet the artist Cecil Collins for advice about her future. He suggested to her that she should encourage her to become a theatrical designer rather than a painter which Mia passionately did, and went to raise the money in Niger for her to study at the Central School in London. From total and abject poverty Maria become wealthy from her work and a belated inheritance from her rich and fake less father, but she hated money and struggle to give as much away as she could. She gave £ 50,000 to one Romanian children's home and founded Romanian screenwriter and authors, and gave substantial charitable donation for speech therapy in Srilanka for the support of professional carers in Britain. She also devoted a lot of her energies to advising students at Central Saint Martins school of art in London where she was an honorary professor. She helped innumerable students and aspiring designers who wrote to her out out of the blue, met with them and gave them advice for their careers. During her career she won two Drama Desk Award for outstanding costumes and two Tony Awards in 1988. She died in London on 13 December 2002