A little bit about me
Playing my piano arrangement of George Harrison’s wonderfully beautiful song 'Something'.
Maybe you wonder how to pronounce my name,
with the dots and all?
Here we go: [Mareea Greanloond]
(with the dotted o pronounced as in “earn”) 😊.
In Sweden it’s common with last names
that consist of two words from the nature,
in my case it's: Grön = green, lund = grove.
I REMEMBER...
Me at the grand piano in the assembly hall. Lights on. My teacher in the dark auditorium. We’re preparing for a recital. I get more and more irritated, I’ve practised so hard and I am playing every note perfectly right, but she just goes on - “Let it go, let it go!”
I get so angry, and cursing to myself I start playing furiously, like hitting the right notes doesn’t matter anymore. To my surprise my teacher shouts with joy, and I feel like I’ve taken the leap and I start to soar in the joys of surrendering to the emotionality of the music of Chopin.
Then she tells me about the mission of the musician. See yourself as a vessel, she says, open yourself up for the music that comes down from the heights and bring it down to the listeners. You as a person isn’t important here, just use your gift to bring the music to people. They need it.
I was fifteen and I just had been blessed with the most important lesson in my life.
I don’t know if music comes from “the heights” or not, but this 1 Columnattitude of putting your ego aside, quit competing and just openinHeadlineg up and surrendering yourself to playing the music is what I am always striving and longing for.
REVIEWS
“The world of piano solo palatable for cross-over appeal seems to pull from a select group of instrumentalists - Òlafur Arnalds, Jon Hopkins, Max Richter, Ryuchi Sakamoto, etc...
The Swedish composer and pianist’s latest ‘June and Me’ does not stray too far from the path - delicate melodies overlapping each other with crafted tension between sentiment and technical prowess. Its evocative enough to ignite an inner warmth while staring out of an office window at the doldrums of winter, while astute enough compositionally to never run the risk of fading into background music.
I hope to see Grönlund’s name mentioned among that small pool of popular composers.”
— TOME TO THE WEATHER MACHINE MUSIC BLOG
“Inspired by the likes of Claude Debussy and Arvo Pärt, the Stockholm based composer and artist Maria Grönlund shares with us her latest work, ‘Mist’.
As the title suggests, there’s a delicate and light feeling to this track. The piano tone is mesmerizing and has a warmth surrounding it, meanwhile the notes it carries features a melancholic style to them.
This is a very hypnotic piece that I find myself leaving on repeat as Grönlund’s notes find themselves whirling in and out, creating quite the atmosphere. It’s all ethereal feeling, and at times leaves you feeling as if you’re floating above this gorgeous arrangement.”
— RURAL SOUNDS MUSIC BLOG
“This year has been wacky-crazy thus far and shows no signs of stopping. Many amazing releases are slated to drop and more new projects are seeing the light of day, everyday. Here are some recent releases that we think are worth your time and attention. You just have to decide for yourself if our opinions matter to you.
... Delicately textured piano wash over your relaxing mind when listening to Maria Grönlund’s ‘June and Me’ movement. Something to lighten up the heavy load of a Berlin winter.”
— SCHMUTZ MUSIC BLOG
“On her latest solo piano output the Swedish composer has crafted a sturdy and somewhat somber piece of notes clustered together that, while light and ethereal, are substantial enough to hang heavy in the air like visible condensation.
’Mist’ is another beautiful track from this rising star in the realm modern composition / neo-classical music.”
— TOME TO THE WEATHER MACHINE
BIO
Maria Gronlund is a Swedish pianist and composer, born on the island Gotland in the Baltic Sea. Her father was a preacher and the family moved around a lot. When she was eleven they moved to Angelholm in Skane, and when she became an adult she moved to her home town since then - Stockholm.
Curious-minded and an eager learner she has studied and has been active in a wide variety of genres and music-related skills. The foundation was a lot of singing in the family and in church, and piano studies since the age of five, when the family inherited a big black shiny piano from her grandfather. She was fascinated by secret languages, symbols and signs and enjoyed learning to read music, which came in handy both during choir rehearsals and performances as well as in her classical piano training. From playing along with friends she learned playing by ear and to play the guitar and flute, and by the age of sixteen she started her own choir and also entertained as a bar pianist at a local restaurant.
At eighteen Maria entered Malmo College of Music and went on to Royal College of music in Stockholm with Classical Piano and Jazz Vocals as main subjects. During the five years that led to her Master of Fine Arts in Music Education she also studied jazz piano, bassoon, trumpet, guitar, bass, drums, recorders, sound design, arranging, ear training, music theory, music history, pedagogics and teaching methods. Together with classmates she formed an a capella group of four which soon was enhanced with a four-piece band. The repertoire was a mix of originals and jazz and soul classics. Maria wrote many of the arrangements, and the group toured quite extensively.
After teaching piano to 4-8 year-olds for a couple of years she got a job as a leader of the music department of an upper secondary school specialising in aesthetic subjects. Teaching and taking part in the artistic and personal development of 16-19 year-olds was something very interesting and fulfilling for Maria, as she’s about as passionate about human psychological development as she is about music. The vast opportunities to learn new things herself and the freedom in forming the education were factors that kept her in the teachers’ profession for a long time.
But there came a time when she felt it was time for her to stop concentrating on developing other people’s talents and make a carrier change. She wanted to explore what she could develop of her own artistic talents, skills and needs of expression.
Since then she’s been working on developing her own compositional voice, and participated in different projects. Some examples of projects are: building a catalog for sync licensing to media productions under the name Grobe music, releasing Indie Dance music with the duo Sounds like Friday, writing and recording string and choir arrangements, building a music tale app, accompanying singers and theatre performances, making experimental sound design for the Royal Swedish Ballet, and taking on commissions for custom made music for brands and authorities.
The current project is going back to her roots - the heart-felt piano playing.
Her solo debut album - Songs of a Sad Sailor - was released in October 2019, with musical influences from Òlafur Arnalds, Nils Frahm, Joep Beving and Poppy Ackroyd. It’s a concept album, inspired by an enticing life story she heard about when sailing to Finnish island Åland, and it’s accompanied by an online extension - the 8-day Songs of a Sad Sailor Album Experience, as well as beautiful hand made merch items.
2020 saw the release of five song Christmas EP Angels, and in 2021 Colors of my mind Pt.1 and 2 came out. Pt.3 and the physical full album Colors Of My Mind met the public in June of 2022.
Other, digital only, releases of 2022 were the three song EP Perceptions - in collaboration with textile designer Charles Eltringham Coumbes, The Parachuter - which is an instrumental solo piano version of a Tomas Tranströmer poem set to music, and a piano arrangement of well known Christmas Carol We Wish You a Merry Christmas.
During 2023 the project was releasing a string of piano covers of melodic pop songs from the 1970s, with works by David Bowie, Elton John, Simon & Garfunkel and more.
A new original album, her third full-length one, is in the works.
Working with solo piano feels like coming home again, Maria says.
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