Maiju Laurila is an organist and church musician from Kotka. She started playing the organ while living in Scotland and was an organ scholar at her university in 2018-2019. Before joining the Sibelius Academy of the University of the Arts in 2020, she also studied organ at the Turku Conservatory. She played her B-level organ recital at the Helsinki Cathedral in the winter of 2024 and is now doing her A-level studies under the guidance of her teacher Ville Urponen.

Laurila has performed as a solo organist throughout Finland, including the Nauvo Chamber Music Days, the Turku Cathedral Summer Music Series, the Helsinki Organ Summer, the Turku Organ Festival, the 180th anniversary concert of the Kangasala Organ Factory in Kuhmalahti, the Naantali Summer Concert Series and the University of Dundee Concert Series in Scotland. She has also collaborated with a number of singers and performed as the second partner in a four-hand (and foot) organ duo with Ville Urponen.

In organ playing, Laurila is particularly fascinated by the dialogue between the specific organ and the works it plays. Given the rich history of organ building, almost every performance is a compromise between the type of organ for which the work was composed and the type of organ in the concert hall.

Laurila's own repertoire has a particular emphasis on the Baroque, and her playing style has been described as light, naturally musical and well structured.

Photo: Maria Grönroos

Maiju Laurila will perform at the organ recital series A Moment with Organ at the Mänttä Music Festival 2024. She will perform in Vilppula Church on Thursday 1 August 2024 at 12.00 PM and in Mänttä Church on Friday 2 August 2024 at 12.00 PM.