In her time at St Mary's Music School, Maitland attended elite courses including Juilliard Summer Percussion Seminar, National Youth Orchestra of Scotland and Edinburgh Youth Orchestra, as well as winning many music competitions and awards for her exceptional abilities on the marimba.

These include Dame Evelyn Glennie,[2] Ney Rosauro, Kai Stensgaard, Joseph Gramley, Janis Potter, Nick Petrella as well as members of the percussion section of the New York Philharmonic.

In 2005, after performing marimba to the G8 Wives at Glamis Castle and winning the award of Angus Youth Ambassador,[3][4] Maitland won an exceptional £80,000 grant from the Donald Dewar Arts Awards to study with the world-renowned Ney Rosauro at the University of Miami Frost School of music.

[5] In September 2007, in her third year of studies, she was involved in a road traffic accident resulting in her left leg becoming permanently paralysed below the knee.

[citation needed] Following her long recovery process, Maitland gained the funding to purchase a five-octave marimba in 2009, when she also became an official Encore Mallets Endorser.