Prior to this, she came to the attention of notable Mexican tenor Ramón Vargas, who helped her get a scholarship, and then won Mexico's Carlo Morelli national singing competition in 2005, which earned her a debut at the Palacio de Bellas Artes.

[5] While pregnant with Maria, her mother attended all the concerts of Mexico's national orchestra, Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional, of which she was a violinist along with her husband.

[1][4][5] She maintained her interest during these three years because she felt she could not express herself sufficiently with the violin, she was intrigued by the development of her own voice and opera attracted her because of the acting component.

[8] At age 17, she began to study with Maritza Alemán at the Escuela Superior de Música[5] and later with baritone Gabriel Mijares and American maestro James Demster.

[4] This time, she placed first,[12] which earned her the opportunity to have her debut at age 21 at the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City, performing as Stephano in Romeo and Juliet with established artists Anna Netrebko and Rolando Villazón.

[9] In 2008, she was accepted as a resident into the Domingo-Thorton Young Artist Program of the Los Angeles Opera, to study and work with Gabriel Mijares and Luisa Besrokova.

[13] She became only the third Mexican to win this competition along with tenor Rolando Villazón and Arturo Chacón Cruz,[5] and it brought her international attention and standing.

[5][13] Since then she was performed in various Italian venues, such as the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma, the Genoa Theater and is one of the few Mexican singers to have appeared at La Scala in Milan.

She made her debut at Teatro Manzoni, Bologna under baton of Michele Mariotti singing " Vier letzte Lieder " which had a huge success.

During the 2012/13 season Katzarava also made her debut at the Teatro Petruzzelli in Bari as Isabella in Daniel Auber's rarely performed piece La muette de Portici.

[2] Engagements for the 2013/2014 season included debuts in roles like Nedda in Leoncavallo's Pagliacci at the Fondazione Sinfonica Petruzzelli in Bari; Manon in Massenet's opera at Palacio de Bellas Artes; Liù in Puccini's Turandot at Teatro Lirico di Cagliari and Mimì in Puccini's La bohème.

She currently performs with Ramón Vargas, Plácido Domingo, Andrea Bocelli, Rolando Villazón, Piotr Beczala, Leonardo Capalbo among others.