Maria Kalaniemi (born 27 May 1964 in

Espoo Espoo (, ; sv, Esbo) is a city and municipality in the region of Uusimaa in the Republic of Finland. It is located on the northern shore of the Gulf of Finland, bordering the cities of Helsinki, Vantaa, Kirkkonummi, Vihti and Nurmijärvi ...

, Finland) is a

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

accordion Accordions (from 19th-century German ''Akkordeon'', from ''Akkord''—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a reed ...

ist. She was classically trained, gaining her MMus from the

Sibelius Academy The Sibelius Academy ( fi, Taideyliopiston Sibelius-Akatemia, sv, Sibelius-Akademin vid Konstuniversitetet) is part of the University of the Arts Helsinki and a university-level music school which operates in Helsinki and Kuopio, Finland. It als ...

in 1992, but has become mostly known as a folk musician having played this music from childhood, besides her

classical music Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical music, as the term "classical music" also ...

studies, and also at the

folk music Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has b ...

department of the

Groups

Ensembles she is or has been involved with are: *'' Niekku'', formed during the years at the Sibelius Academy: before they disbanded, they recorded three albums. *'' Aldargaz'', also formed at the Sibelius Academy including

fiddle A fiddle is a bowed string musical instrument, most often a violin. It is a colloquial term for the violin, used by players in all genres, including classical music. Although in many cases violins and fiddles are essentially synonymous, th ...

Arto Järvelä Arto Järvelä (born in 1964 in Hattula, Finland) is a Finnish violin, fiddler and composer. Because of the many groups and projects he is involved in, he has been called "the busiest man in Finnish folk music". He is primarily a violinist, but a ...

pianist A pianist ( , ) is an individual musician who plays the piano. Since most forms of Western music can make use of the piano, pianists have a wide repertoire and a wide variety of styles to choose from, among them traditional classical music, ja ...

Timo Alakotila Timo Alakotila is a Finnish composer, arranger, and musician born 15 July 1959. Career Timo Alakotila's range of music styles stretches from Finnish folk music of the '' pelimanni'' style over some jazz influences to more or less Finnish s ...

mandolin A mandolin ( it, mandolino ; literally "small mandola") is a stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally plucked with a pick. It most commonly has four courses of doubled strings tuned in unison, thus giving a total of 8 ...

ist Petri Hakala,

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

ist Olli Varis and Tapani Varis. The group made their last recording in 1999. *A duo consisting of her and Timo Alakotila, that recorded the album ''Ambra''. *''Maria Kalaniemi Trio'', extending the duo with Olli Varis. Both the duo and the trio play traditional tunes, popular Finnish tunes from about the mid-20th century as well as new material by Kalaniemi and Alakotila. The trio released a live CD recorded in

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

, ''Tokyo concert'', that partly contains the same tunes as ''Ambra''. *''

Accordion Tribe Accordion Tribe were an international accordion group featuring Bratko Bibič (Slovenia), Lars Hollmer (Sweden), Maria Kalaniemi (Finland), Guy Klucevsek (USA/Slovenia) and Otto Lechner (Austria). They have recorded three albums, have toured Europ ...

'', an international accordion group consisting of Kalaniemi,

Guy Klucevsek Guy Klucevsek (born February 26, 1947) is an American-born accordionist and composer. Klucevsek is one of relatively few accordion players active in new music, jazz and free improvisation. Klucevsek was born in New York City, and raised outside ...

from the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, Bratko Bibic from

Slovenia Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, an ...

Lars Hollmer Lars Gustav Gabriel Hollmer (21 July 1948 – 25 December 2008) was a Swedish accordionist, keyboardist and composer, whose work drew on music ranging from Nordic folk tunes to progressive rock. He has been a member and/or founder of over half a ...

from

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

and

Otto Lechner Otto Lechner (born February 25, 1964) is an Austrian accordionist. Lechner taught himself to play the accordion starting at age four. He has been blind since age 15. Lechner is currently a member of the group Accordion Tribe and musical director ...

from

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

*'' Unto Tango Orchestra'' (''Tango-Orkesteri Unto'') with Pirjo Aittomäki (

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

), Timo Alakotila, Petri Hakala (

Mauno Järvelä Mauno Järvelä (born 25. November 1949 in Kaustinen) is a Finnish fiddler, violinist and music pedagogue. He is the uncle of Arto Järvelä, and both of them are members in the successful folk music group JPP, whose roots are the pelimanni tradi ...

(

violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

) and Hannu Rantanen (

double bass The double bass (), also known simply as the bass () (or #Terminology, by other names), is the largest and lowest-pitched Bow (music), bowed (or plucked) string instrument in the modern orchestra, symphony orchestra (excluding unorthodox addit ...

). The group was formed to perform at one particular occasion, and later released a CD that outside of Finland is sold as ''Finnish tango''. *'' Helsinki Melodeon Ladies'' *'' Ramunder'', a Swedish-speaking project with the singer Anna-Kaisa Liedes and the fiddler Marianne Maans She has also worked and recorded with the Swedish fiddler Sven Ahlbäck, the popular Finnish singer

Katri Helena Katri Helena Kalaoja (née Koistinen, born 17 August 1945) is a Finnish singer. Career Katri Helena released her first songs in 1963 and has since sold over 630,000 certified records, which makes her the second-best-selling female soloist ...

, the singer/actor/flautist

Vesa-Matti Loiri Vesa-Matti "Vesku" Loiri (4 January 1945 – 10 August 2022) was a Finnish actor, musician and comedian, best known for his role as Uuno Turhapuro, whom he portrayed in a total of 20 movies between the years 1973 and 2004. According to Yle Ne ...

, the Finnish accordionist

Kimmo Pohjonen Kimmo Pohjonen (born August 16, 1964) is a Finnish accordionist who is known for his avant-garde and experimental work with his custom-made electrified and modified instrument. He has released nine albums of his work and has toured Europe extens ...

and many others. In 2004, she was the special guest at a concert in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

with the

BBC Concert Orchestra The BBC Concert Orchestra is a British concert orchestra based in London, one of the British Broadcasting Corporation's five radio orchestras. With around fifty players, it is the only one of the five BBC orchestras which is not a full-scale symp ...

and the Finnish fiddler group

JPP J.P.P. is a group of Finnish folk musicians from Kaustinen. The group still uses the Kaustinen traditional settings with fiddles, harmonium and double bass, although their arrangements are more advanced than those of earlier generations of tra ...

playing duets with Timo Alakotila plus a piece by Alakotila for accordion, orchestra and JPP written for this occasion.

Discography

*''Planet Squeezebox'', 1995 (

Ellipsis Arts The ellipsis (, also known informally as dot dot dot) is a series of dots that indicates an intentional omission of a word, sentence, or whole section from a text without altering its original meaning. The plural is ellipses. The term origin ...

) *''Ahma'', 2001 ( Rockadillo Records) *''Bellow Poetry'', 2006 (

Alula Records The alula , or bastard wing, (plural ''alulae'') is a small projection on the anterior edge of the wing of modern birds and a few non-avian dinosaurs. The word is Latin and means "winglet"; it is the diminutive of ''ala'', meaning "wing". The ...

)

Collaborations

*''Åkerö'', 2011, with Timo Alakotila (

Åkerö Åkerö, also called Akero or Okera, is an old apple cultivar of presumed Swedish origin, but possibly introduced from the Netherlands. It is a dessert apple with an aromatic flavor. Åkerö was first described by pomologist Olof Eneroth in 1858 ...

ÅKERÖCD011)

Also appears on

*''Beginner's Guide to Scandinavia'', 2011 (Nascente/

Demon Music Group Demon Music Group (DMG) is a record company owned by BBC Studios that is mainly concerned with back-catalogue rights and re-issuing recordings as compilations on physical media (CDs and vinyl) via supermarkets and specialist stores. History DM ...

)

Honours

*1997: 3 Years Composer Grant *1996: Prize of Finland *1983: Golden Accordion Competition

References

External links

Official website at Hoedown, in EnglishOfficial website in FinnishMaria Kalaniemi - Virtual International Philharmonic
1964 births Living people Finnish accordionists Finnish composers Nordic folk musicians 20th-century Finnish women musicians 21st-century Finnish women musicians 21st-century accordionists {{finland-musician-stub