{"id":11,"date":"2013-10-15T21:02:52","date_gmt":"2013-10-15T21:02:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.marimantyla.com\/?page_id=11"},"modified":"2026-02-25T11:21:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T11:21:07","slug":"mari-mantyla","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.marimantyla.com\/en\/mari-mantyla\/","title":{"rendered":"Mari M\u00e4ntyl\u00e4"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Mari<\/a>

Photo: Heikki Tuuli<\/small><\/p><\/div>\n

Mari M\u00e4ntyl\u00e4 is one of the most appreciated classical guitarists in Finland. Her main instrument is decacorde, the 10-string classical guitar.
\nM\u00e4ntyl\u00e4 has given concerts both as a soloist and as a chamber musician throughout Europe, the Middle East and Asia.
\nShe is engaged in collaboration with a number of composers from both Finland and abroad. Composers, among others, Jukka Tiensuu, Pekka Jalkanen, Juha T Koskinen, Olli Virtaperko, Heikki Valpola, Harri Wessman, Juan Antonio Muro, Eero H\u00e4meenniemi, Sid Hille, Nikita Koshkin, Anastasia Salo, Graham Lynch, Vincent Bouchot, T\u00f5nu K\u00f5rvits, Charlotte Bray, Ren\u00e9 Eespere, Mari Sainio ja Markku Klami. M\u00e4ntyl\u00e4 has given several premiere performances of new music composed for the decacorde and thus she has significantly contributed in making this instrument better known to the public.<\/p>\n

Her basic repertoire is drawn from different periods of classical art music, but she is a diverse musician, adapting easily to different music styles. Her work with Finnish folk musicians and her role as the guitarist in a band, specialized in Portuguese fado music are examples of this versatility.
\nM\u00e4ntyl\u00e4 plays chamber music in a range of groups. Duo Dryades, a bandone\u00f3n-decacorde duo, formed together with the bandoneonist Kristina Kuusisto in 2002, performs actively at concerts in Finland and abroad. The duo has released three albums. All albums have received enthusiastic reviews in the press. Speira CD was selected a classical music Emma Award nominee (a prize issued by the Finnish recording industry for the most distinguished artists and productions of the year). Duo Dryades has also performed with the Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra in the concert where Pekka Jalkanen\u2019s double concerto Aeterna, dedicated for this duo, was given its world premiere.<\/p>\n

One of M\u00e4ntyl\u00e4\u2019s music productions is monologue opera Dominus Krabbe, composed by Pekka Jalkanen, performed together with countertenor Teppo Lampela. The premiere of the Opera was given in the Helsinki Festival 2012 and after that it has been performed several times in different places in Finland.
\nThe recordings, both solo and chamber music, of Mari M\u00e4ntyl\u00e4 have all received excellent responses in the music press both in Finland and abroad. M\u00e4ntyl\u00e4\u2019s most recent solo album, Passing Shadows, has been nominated for the 2026 Emma Awards in the category of classical music<\/p>\n

\n

M\u00e4ntyl\u00e4’s own [composition] Tangere, it is to even greater exploratory and musical effect, the sensitivity of her playing across fretless and percussive frontiers a highlight of the recital.<\/i> Gramophone, William Yeoman<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

She is an excellent technician\u2014but more than that, she is an excellent musician.<\/i> Fanfare Magazine<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

— it is the Bach suite where M\u00e4ntyl\u00e4 really shines. The presentation on this disc is an authoritative and highly musical one. She splendidly captures the characteristics of each movement well and easily meets the technical demands of this challenging music. This is a performance which ranks alongside the best of them. Recording quality and overall production is excellent and I can thoroughly recommend this disc to add to anyone’s CD library.<\/i> Classical Guitar Magazine<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The elaborate playing of Mari M\u00e4ntyl\u00e4 is sensitive and temperamental.<\/i> Suomen Kuvalehti Magazine<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

With her ultimate pianissimos, M\u00e4ntyl\u00e4 provides a breathtaking profundity to the melancholy spirit of John Dowland, as well as to the Allemande and Sarabande movements of Bach\u2019s suite for the lute; in their subtlety, M\u00e4ntyl\u00e4 hides almost frightening strength.<\/i> Rondo Classic Magazine<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

She has appeared in several recordings and performed on the radio and television in Finland, Russia, France And Lithuania. Mari M\u00e4ntyl\u00e4 is the guitar and chamber music teacher of the Kuhmo Music Institute. She was also the artistic director of the Tirando Guitar Festival, organised in 2002 and 2003.<\/p>\n

M\u00e4ntyl\u00e4 studied the guitar at Tampere Conservatory with Jorma Salmela, in the department of solo studies at the Sibelius Academy with Jukka Savijoki, in Oscar Ghiglia\u2019s concert class at the Basel Music Academy in Switzerland and at Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena, where she was granted a Diploma di Merito (an honorary diploma), in 1991. She took her soloist diploma at the Sibelius Academy in 1995 and Konzertreife diploma at the Basel Music Academy in 1997. She gained her Master of Music degree in 1998.<\/p>\n

Mari M\u00e4ntyl\u00e4 plays two different decacordes built by Kauko Liikanen (LiikanenGuitars). One has frets under the all strings, the four lowest bass strings are fretless in the other. M\u00e4ntyl\u00e4 also plays an alto decacorde built by Georg Bolin.<\/p>\n

\n

Decacorde<\/h3>\n