Maija Kauhanen: “Playing high strings is like painting with Milky Way star glitter”

“Playing high strings is like painting with Milky Way star glitter.” Maija Kauhanen, an established talent on the Finnish folk scene, both solo and as a member of the electro-folk group Okra Playground, has been playing kantele for over 30 years. A traditional Finnish and Karelian chordophone, the kantele is played flat and plucked, with strings numbering between five and 40. Kauhanen’s enthusiasm for her instrument is infectious. “I lost half of my left-hand’s little finger in an accident when I was one,” she explains, “when I was eight, my parents and the music school started to think what instrument I could play. They realised that for almost every one you need that finger, but with kantele I can play very well without. Sometimes I need to solve technical challenges, but that just adds to the fun.”

Kauhanen studied in Helsinki, first at the Youth Department in the Sibelius Academy, then at the Folk Music Department at the University of the Arts. She also plays harmonium, folk flutes, saxophone, mandolin and even bagpipes. “I like to gather ideas from all these instruments,” she says, “and then combine those ideas into my kantele playing.” The kantele is an easy instrument to learn, Kauhanen assures me, “but when you want to master it there is a lot to practise. Many kantele players, myself included, play many sizes and types, so there are very many techniques. Using fingers, plectrum, wooden stick, playing melodies, chords, mixing it all together…”

She hand-crafts her own kanteles in partnership with her father. “Sometimes we add bass strings,” she tells me, “sometimes we try different woods, sometimes we shape models differently to get a certain sound that I like.” It’s a process which clearly fascinates the gifted multi-instrumentalist. “I have two kanteles of exactly the same type and age,” she muses, “but made of different woods. I’ve played them over the years and I can listen and learn how the wood and the sound changes as time passes.” Constructing her own instruments also enables Kauhanen to account for her particular needs: “Because of my lost finger, for me it’s easier to play when the strings are closer to each other than normal.”

Kauhanen’s most prized kantele is a 23-string Saarijärvi model in pink. “I have a special bond with this one,” she enthuses, “I can express all my emotions through its sound. You can play very quietly, but also very loud with this kantele. It’s a little bit limited with its diatonic scale, but that makes me re-think and develop my playing all the time.” Kauhanen has toured all over the world with this instrument. “The sound is really part of me,” she goes on, “I can also blend my voice with this kantele really well because I’ve been playing it for many, many years.” 

When playing live, she does not use any loopers or backing tracks – all the more impressive when you consider her addition of percussion to create a “one-woman band.” As she explains, “I was thinking, when I sit and play my feet do nothing. So I started to try different drums, rhythms and sounds with them. The most exciting and also the hardest aspect is combining the different playing techniques.” This balance between the traditional and progressive is something that Kauhanen is very aware of. “I think I’m part of the history and part of the tradition,” she says, “but my interest and goal of playing kantele is not solely to carry the old tradition. It’s playing the kantele how I want to play it.”  

Read the review of Okra Playground’s Itku

This interview originally appeared in the April 2023 issue of Songlines. Never miss an issue – subscribe today