Marina Väisä was born in Leningrad. Graduated from the Rimsky-Korsakov St Petersburg State Conservatory in 2004, specialising in organ (class of Tatiana Chausova) and harpsichord (class of Ivan Rozanov), and in 2005 she graduated from the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, specialising in organ (class of Olli Porthan). Also undertook a postgraduate study at the St Petersburg Conservatory.
Has taken part in masterclasses given by Ludger Lohmann, Jon Laukvik, Wolfgang Zerer, Bernard Foccroulle, Jean Wolfs, Kari Jussila, Pieter van Dijk and Lorenzo Ghielmi. As a grant recipient of the Gartow Stiftung she continued to study at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Stuttgart under Ludger Lohmann.
At Kaliningrad’s Mikael Tariverdiev International Organ Competition the artist received two special prizes in 2003 and the Northern England Prize in 2005.
From 1991 to 2013 Marina Väisä was the organist and Chorus Director at the St George Evangelical Lutheran Church in Koltushi (Leningrad Region). Since 2009 she has been Principal Organist of the St Petersburg Cathedral of St Mary, where she organises concerts that are open to all. In 2010 the Finnish company Martti Porthan undertook work to install a neo-baroque organ in the cathedral. Marina Väisä took part in a commission to develop its design and was the curator responsible for the instrument’s installation.
She plays at various venues in St Petersburg. Has toured to Finland, Estonia, Sweden, Great Britain, Germany, Switzerland and China as a soloist and chamber musician. Regularly performs at the Concert Hall of the Mariinsky Theatre.
Since 2005 Marina Väisä has been a teacher at the Department of Organ and Harpsichord at the St Petersburg Conservatory. From 2001 to 2014 she was a teacher at the Theological Institute of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Ingria (Leningrad Region), and from 2010 to 2015 – at the Department of Organ, Harpsichord and Carillon at St Petersburg State University. In 2016 the musician was a jury member at the All-Russian Odoyevsky Organ Competition in the city of Korolyov (Moscow Region), and in 2018 – at the International Goedicke Organ Competition in Moscow.
In 2012 together with mezzo-soprano Elena Eremeeva she released the audio recording Barocco Music: Mezzo-Soprano and Organ. In 2018 the artist released the CD Glory to God Alone with compositions by Bach and Evangelical Lutheran Church chants.
Information for December 2023
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