Composer, pianist and artistic researcher working at the edge of the keyboard – between classical pianism, electroacoustic invention and the sound of the sea.
Dr. Maria Kallionpää (b. 1981, Ulvila, Finland) is an internationally active composer, pianist and artistic researcher. Her catalogue moves fluidly between solo piano, chamber music, opera and large orchestral writing – and increasingly between acoustic instruments and the live electronics, MIDI keyboards and Disklaviers she calls super-instruments.
A doctoral graduate of the University of Oxford, with further studies at the Royal Academy of Music in London and the Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Wien, she has held positions at Hong Kong Baptist University, Aalborg University and the Mixed Reality Laboratory of the University of Nottingham. She is currently artistic researcher within the Sonic Ecologies track at KreativInstitut.OWL · Hochschule für Musik Detmold.
Her recent work translates the underwater soundscapes of coral reefs and Finnish rivers into music – a practice she calls sonification, where part of the authorship of a piece is given over to the sea itself.
Artists and researchers have an obligation of contributing to ongoing societal and environmental discourses.
Two pianos and live video, after the soundscape of the Mu Koh Lanta coral reef in Thailand. Sonification meets visual artwork by Andre Veloux. Awarded a prize in the Climate Change category of the Sonification Awards 2025, Boston.
A non-linear, interactive composition for pianist, Disklavier and bespoke smartphone application – simultaneously a virtuoso piano work and a computer game. Premiered after a postdoctoral research project on gamification as a composition technique.
Commissioned for Tampere Biennale 2020. A chamber portrait of the sea, written for flute, clarinet, piano and string quartet. Selected by the International Music Council for its Hidden Treasures Mixtape.
A full-length puppet opera co-composed with Markku Klami – the first of its kind produced in the Nordic countries. Premiered at Promenadi Hall, Pori, March 2018. Recorded in full virtual-reality ambisonics.
A chamber opera for theremin, prepared piano, voices and ensemble – a study in the female imagination, recorded as one of the first complete operas in virtual-reality ambisonics.
A new piano concerto based on sonified data from the underwater ecosystem of the Kokemäenjoki river in Western Finland. Written for and dedicated to pianist Laura Mikkola; a tribute to Selim Palmgren’s Virta.
Maria’s practice has always moved between the concert hall and the laboratory. Her doctoral work at Oxford coined the idea of the super-instrument – the pianist transformed by Disklavier, MIDI keyboard, toy piano and live electronics into something larger than a single performer. From there her work has grown to include gamification, virtual reality opera and, most recently, the sonification of marine and freshwater ecosystems.
Maria Kallionpää is among the composers exploring the cognitive tightrope of singing instrumentalists – pieces in which musicians must play and vocalise at once.
A composer-researcher giving over part of the authorship of music to the sea itself, translating coral-reef recordings into rhythm and pitch.
Awarded in the Climate Change category for The Reef – two pianos and live video, after the underwater soundscape of Mu Koh Lanta National Park.
For new commissions, residencies, performances and collaborations, please write directly.
Music Finland
Keilasatama 2 A
02150 Espoo, Finland
