Maarja joined the Arvo Pärt Centre in 2020. She previously came to appreciate Pärt’s music through her work as a teacher and musicologist.
The chance to work in depth with Arvo Pärt’s work was what interested her about working at the centre. Access to archival materials and being able to meet the composer is a unique opportunity that combines different kinds of knowledge into one complete picture. The spiritual and spatial atmosphere at the centre makes it an extremely pleasant place to work according to Maarja, and it has encouraged her to develop further as a musicologist and on a personal level.
Her responsibilities include researching and digitising archival materials. She says that it is often necessary to use detective methods when working with historical documents in order to track down the facts, which may have become blurred over the years, and to check their validity. However, compiling stories behind Arvo Pärt’s works requires combining music theory and knowledge of archives. In addition, Maarja is one of the people responsible for writing the programmes for concerts and conducts tours.
Maarja has been actively involved in music for much of her life. She graduated from Tallinn Music High School specialising in piano. She then obtained a master’s degree in musicology and instrumental pedagogy at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre. In 2013, she studied piano at the Berlin University of the Arts. She has worked as a music and art history teacher at Tallinn Music High School and lectured at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre. From 2015 to 2017, Maarja lived in Australia, where she worked as a piano teacher.