Born in Helsinki, Finland, Marja Kaisla began piano studies at age three and made her public debut at five. As chamber musician, recitalist, and concerto soloist, she has performed in Europe, the former Soviet Union, and the United States.

Miss Kaisla received her musical education in piano performance at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, Finland, at the St. Petersburg Conservatory in Russia, in Switzerland with György Sebök, and Philadelphia with Susan Starr.

Since moving to the United States in 1987 she has enjoyed an active concert career on stage, radio, television and major motion pictures while being an advocate for the importance of music education.

For years she was the owner and director of the Delaware Valley Conservatory of Music, and is the co-founder of the Philadelphia Foundation for World Music and Arts, a non-profit organization, which advocates music education and cultural tolerance between people through music and arts. She was also the owner of Delaware Valley Music, a sheet music retail store with two locations in Philadelphia, from 2003 until 2009.

Miss Kaisla’s academic work has included teaching and coordinating music programs at colleges while giving workshops and lectures to piano teachers to help them teach and choose appropriate learning materials for students.

Marja Kaisla was the Artistic and Executive Director of a Philadelphia area performing arts center in 2009-2010, which she created to also include an educational facility and art gallery, to be the cultural, educational, and economic anchor for the entire North Penn region.

She made her Carnegie Hall debut in 2005 as the pianist of Trio Excelsior, with whom she has toured extensively around the United States. She was also a member of a unique quartet of four pianos, Piano4, with whom she has performed over a hundred concerts in the US.

This year Miss Kaisla is spearheading and implementing numerous cultural, educational and business events in the tri-state area for the celebration of the 375th Anniversary of the Finns’ and Swedes’ settlement of the Delaware Valley in 1638. She was recently awarded the Commemorative Medal of the Centennial of the Parliament of Finland for her work promoting Finnish and Nordic culture. She was awarded the Performer of the Year 2013 title by the Finlandia Foundation National, an advocacy organization in the US promoting Finnish culture and Finnish American artists’ work.

Miss Kaisla is a recording artist, and she appears as a pianist in the M. Night Shyamalan film, The Village.

Her interests outside of music include animal welfare, sustainable living, history, quantum physics and quantum mechanics.