Maria Ilmoniemi

Maria Ilmoniemi — Finnish pianist and keyboardist — has been part of Tarja Turunen's band since the start of the singer's solo career in 2006. The position carries an uncommon demand. Tarja's solo work moves between heavy symphonic metal, song with orchestra, classical repertoire and Christmas records — Henkäys Ikuisuudesta (2006), My Winter Storm (2007), Colours in the Dark (2013), Ave Maria — En Plein Air (2015), In the Raw (2019). The keyboard player must follow all those registers, which means alternating between concert piano, electronic orchestration and metal keyboard, often within a single show. Tarja is a classically trained singer who left Nightwish in 2005 and built from there a career of her own, freer and more varied than symphonic metal allowed. The band accompanying her needs the same breadth. Almost twenty years in the same role, with that degree of stylistic variation, is what defines Ilmoniemi's path — one of the most constant musicians in the career of one of metal's best-known voices.