Maria Kalaniemi, a master of free-bass button accordion, is one of Finland's leading contemporary accordionists. Technically brilliant as a player, and adept at improvisation, she is also a very powerful, intuitive and sensitive composer, with pieces that stylistically touch in numerous areas but feature her own personality as the driving force. Her roots are in folk and classical music but her sights and abilities go far beyond existing styles. Melody is the meaning and with Maria listeners are sure to feel her message deeply. Her style of expression is also called accordion fado.
Maria Kalaniemi has toured and performed throughout Europe, USA, Canada and Japan. In the year 2018 Kalaniemi was awarded the State Prize for Music by the National Council for Music of The Arts Promotion Centre Finland. In the same year she was nominated as a member of Royal Swedish Academy of Music, as the first Finnish musician in the folk music genre.
Under fullmånen (Vimeo): http://vimeo.com/22203141
