Vocalist Maria Mannisto Named Finlandia Foundation Performer of the Year for 2007
By Gerry Henkel
Finnish Americans will be pleasantly surprised by the variety of music and songs they will hear when soprano vocalist Maria Mannisto performs throughout the USA in 2007.
When the Finlandia Foundation’s choice for its 2007 Performer Of the Year was asked by a reporter what music she would be performing in her concerts, she answered, “Toivo Kuula art songs, some Sibelius songs, some tangos, and maybe even some Finnish jazz”.
Maria loves to sing the songs of Kuula. Among her favorites are Sinipiika, Kesäyö kirkkomaalla, and Vanha syyslaulu - songs that have lyrics written by the poet V.A. Koskenniemi – and Marjatan laulu, a song with lyrics by Eino Leino. Another reason Maria wants to perform Kuula songs is incidental – her father went to school with Kuula’s nephew. Because of her love for Kuula’s music, Maria eventually wants to make a recording of his music.
She says that since Swedish was one of the first languages she learned in her home – it is her mother’s native language – she takes great delight in singing the Swedish songs of Sibelius. So audiences at her concerts will be hearing not only a variety of music styles, but also at least three different languages - Swedish, Finnish, and English.
Maria was born in Bellevue, Washington, twenty four years ago. Her first seven years were spent in the Seattle area, then her family moved to Alberta, Canada, where her parents worked as consultants to the forestry industy. Not much later, the family moved back to Finland where Maria attended a Swedish speaking school during her fourth and fifth grades.
Her parents have always been very supportive of her study of music. When she was five years old she was already taking piano lessons. Music has always been a family affair for the Mannistos: her parents Heikki and Eva perform duets of traditional Finnish folk songs, and her brother Peter studies violin. On many occasions the family will perform together.
Maria was not completely sure that she wanted to study music – at first zoology was more intriguing to her. But about five years ago she says she knew she wanted to be a singer. It was an “evolving process, I discovered I loved singing while in high school. I started doing solo work then, and that’s when I decided on music as a career.”
Maria has a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Music and is currently in the Master of Music Program at the University of Washington studying vocal performance. She has performed with a number of Seattle area choirs including the Seattle Girls’ Choir, the UW Chamber Singers, and currently the Renaissance Singers, the Tudor Choir, and Opus 7. Maria directs the Finnish Choral Society of Seattle and is the primary organist at the Finnish Lutheran Church.
This past April, Maria performed the lead role in Tom Baker’s new “operatorio” The Gospel of the Red-Hot Stars. The piece combines four elements: the reflections of a woman accused of witchcraft, given voice by Margaret Atwood’s darkly wry poem “Half-Hanged Mary”; Cotton Mather’s fire-breathing sermons on virtue; a vocal quartet singing Baker’s stripped-down, slightly skewed Psalm settings; and interludes for the six-member orchestra incorporating hypnotic repetition and free improvisation.
Maria is looking forward to the next year, she says, “for the opportunity to travel, to meet other musicians, and the personal growth” involved in being the Performer of the Year.