Cornish Music Series to Welcome Marja Kaisla, 11/24

The Finlandia Foundation's National Performer of the Year 2013, Marja Kaisla, presents a solo piano recital of works by Sibelius and others in this concert, part of the Cornish Music Series on Sunday, November 24 at 7 p.m. at PONCHO Concert Hall, 710 E Roy St, Seattle.

Tickets for this event are $20 general admission, $15 seniors (62+), $10 students and Cornish alumni, and $5 Teen Tix (members only). Tickets are available online at http://www.cornish.edu/musicseries2013 or by phone at Brown Paper Tickets 800.838.3006.

The Finlandia Foundation National, with 45 chapters nationwide, is the largest private source of funding for Finnish and Finnish-American cultural programs in the United States. The Performer of the Year (POY) Program has become one of the most popular and successful vehicles for the Foundation's ongoing support of Finnish and Finnish-American culture in the U.S. The program was first implemented in 1996 in order to bring the undiscovered talents of performers, who promote Finnish and Finnish-American culture to wider audiences than usual. Most of those selected to date have been singers or musicians. Often the performers not only give concerts but teach as well. The Finlandia Foundation National funding for the Performer of the Year (POY) Program is a travel grant for $7,000 that covers POY performances at a minimum of six chapter events around the country during the full calendar year.

Born in Helsinki, Finland, Marja Kaisla began piano studies at age three and made her public debut at age five. An avid chamber musician, recitalist, and orchestra soloist, she has performed in Europe, the former Soviet Union, and extensively in the United States. Kaisla received her musical education in piano performance at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, at the St. Petersburg Conservatory in Russia, in Switzerland with Gyorgy Sebok, and in Philadelphia with Susan Starr.

Since moving to the United States in 1987 she has enjoyed an active concert career on stage and in radio, television, and major motion pictures while being an advocate for the importance of music education. For years she was the owner and director of the Delaware Valley Conservatory of Music, and she is the co-founder of the Philadelphia Foundation for World Music and Arts, a non-profit organization which advocates music education and cultural tolerance.

She made her Carnegie Hall debut in 2005 as the pianist of Trio Excelsior, with whom she has toured extensively around the United States. She was also a member of a unique quartet of four pianos, Piano4, with whom she has performed over a hundred concerts in the United States. Kaisla is a recording artist, and she appears as a pianist in the M. Night Shyamalan film The Village.