Maija Kauhanen – vocals and kantele
Maija Kauhanen is a multi-instrumentalist and a songwriter with a strong presence on stage. Maija plays all types of kanteles, but she has specialized in Finnish Saarijärvi kantele and the old and rare technique of playing kantele with a wooden stick. She is very curious about arranging folk music in a modern way.
On Maija´s solo project she plays kantele, percussions and sings at the same time and combines sometimes dance to the performance too. Combining polyrhythms, strong beat, colorful voice and virtuoso kantele playing she builds unique sound worlds just playing solo. With her solo material Maija won the International Solo Kantele Competition in Helsinki 2011 and during the same year she shared the second price of Nord´11 Competition in Sälen, Sweden.