In 1970 she graduated with honours from the Gnesin State Musical and Pedagogical Institute (later the Gnesin Russian Academy of Music).
Since 1964 she has worked professionally as a vocal accompanist at the M. M. Ippolitov‑Ivanov Music College.
From 1970 to 1997 she served as accompanist, and later senior accompanist, in the Solo Singing Department of the Gnesin State Musical and Pedagogical Institute.
In 1984 she was awarded the «Veteran of Labour» medal. In 1992 she became a diploma‑winner of the «Amber Nightingale» International Chamber Singing Competition.
From 1992 to 2001 she worked as Senior Lecturer, Associate Professor, Professor, and Head of the Department of Accompaniment at the Maimonides State Classical Academy.
From 2001 she was Associate Professor, and from 2008 Professor of Chamber Singing in the «Academic Singing» Department at the M. M. Ippolitov‑Ivanov State Musical and Pedagogical Institute. From 2005 she was responsible for the department’s scholarly and methodological work.
Since 2006 she has taught chamber singing at the Gnesin Russian Academy of Music, and since 2014 she has also taught chamber singing at Moscow State Humanities University.
She has toured throughout Russia and abroad and has taken part in numerous all‑Union, all‑Russian, and international competitions and festivals (Spain, 1990; Ireland, 1995; masterclasses in Hungary, 1990; Luxembourg, 2000), including five «Moscow Autumn» festivals (1981, 1984, 1989, 1993, 1994), where she gave first performances of vocal cycles by contemporary Russian composers.
She has made fourteen recordings for the Gosteleradio archive and appeared as a performer in the television music programme «I Would Like in a Single Word...» on the Open World channel (1991).
In her work as accompanist and teacher she has trained singers who have gone on to receive the titles People’s Artist of Russia, Honoured Artist of Russia, and Honoured Art Worker of Russia; more than twenty laureates and diploma‑winners of all‑Russian and international competitions; over thirty soloists of opera theatres (including seven soloists of the Bolshoi Theatre) and philharmonic societies; and four postgraduate students.
In recent years her students and graduates have become laureates of chamber music competitions, among them N. Orlova, S. Yudichev, V. Kirillov, S. Gobechia, and others.
In 2003, 2004, and 2007 she gave open lessons and masterclasses in the Methodological Office for Arts and Culture Educational Institutions of the Moscow City Department of Culture.
From 2007 to 2017 she served as a member and chair of juries for numerous regional, all‑Russian, and international vocal competitions and accompaniment contests (Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Italy, Finland), where she also gave masterclasses.
Between 2006 and 2017 she published a number of scholarly and methodological essays in the collected papers of the M. M. Ippolitov‑Ivanov Institute and the Gnesin Russian Academy of Music, including:
- a chamber singing syllabus for higher education institutions (2004, co‑authored with N. Yu. Yureneva);
- «Vocal Cycles by Russian Composers of the Second Half of the 20th Century» in three notebooks with an introductory article (2009);
- a chamber singing syllabus for vocal faculties of music universities (2012, co‑authored with M. S. Agin);
- «The Pedagogical Principles of B. Ya. Zemlyansky» in Perspektivy razvitiya vokalnogo obrazovaniya: methodological recommendations, Moscow, 2018, pp. 114–118.
From 2006 to 2014 she presented papers and masterclasses at scholarly and methodological conferences, including «The Work of M. I. Glinka», «Training the Professional Vocalist: Problems, Experience, Prospects», and «Traditions of the Russian Vocal School: A Word about the Teacher».
Between 2004 and 2011 she curated and performed in a series of monographic concerts, including:
- «O Mozart, Mozart!» (for the 250th anniversary of his birth);
- «Franz Schubert: Songs» (for the 210th anniversary of his birth);
- programmes of vocal cycles;
- «Johannes Brahms: Songs» (for the 175th anniversary of his birth);
- «P. I. Tchaikovsky: Romances» (for the 170th anniversary of his birth);
- a solo recital by student A. Yegorov, «The French Romance of the 19th–20th Centuries».
In 2014 M. N. Ber appeared in two programmes of the radio series «Accompanist: Master of the Concert» on Radio Orpheus.
Since 2015 she has given regular masterclasses at the Elena Obraztsova International School of Vocal Excellence (Moscow), and in 2016 she led a masterclass within the 10th Zara Dolukhanova «Amber Nightingale» International Vocal Competition (Kaliningrad). For twelve years she has conducted masterclasses and open lessons within the «School of Accompaniment Mastery» of the Russian Guild of Pianist‑Accompanists (Moscow).
Her class presents concerts every semester. In 2017 an off‑site monographic concert by her class took place at the S. V. Rachmaninoff «Ivanovka» Memorial Estate.
In 2014 M. N. Ber received a letter of gratitude from the Minister of Culture of the Russian Federation.
