Kirsi-Marja “Kiki” Harju (27.01.1993) is a Finnish trumpet player, singer and composer based in Amsterdam. “I didn’t choose the trumpet, the trumpet chose me,” she recalls. “I wanted to play everything else, particularly violin, but as a kid I made mistakes in the music school exam, I was so nervous.” She was put into the wind department, given a pocket trumpet and soon found she could play beautiful melodies. She also sang. “My friends said I was too loud but I loved it. I was in choirs and vocal groups at school. Later I heard Chet Baker and realised I could combine the two.”
Harju has studied music both in Finland and in The Netherlands, and lastly she graduated as Bachelor of Music from the jazz department of Conservatorium van Amsterdam in 2019. There her teachers in trumpet playing were Jan Wessels, Ruud Breuls, Jarmo Hoogendijk and Jan Oosthof. She got lessons also from quest teachers like Alex Sipiagin, Ambrose Akinmusire, Terrell Stafford and Mathias Eick. Vocals she has studied for example with Humphrey Campbell and Sanni Orasmaa.
She has worked with a wide range of different kinds of groups and music styles, from orchestras and big bands to duos and pop-groups, performing in different kinds of venues and festivals around Europe. In Finland she was active in a 12-piece jazz group Mikko Sarvanne Hip Company (WE JAZZ Rising Star- winner 2014) and they performed for example at Oslo Jazz Festival, Pori Jazz, St. Petersburg Filharmonic Hall and Viapori Jazz. In 2013 she founded her first own group Kiki-O, and started writing her own music.
Currently she composes, teaches, performs and leads her group KAMA Kollektiv. In 2019 Harju produced and released their first album “KOTI” (which means “home” in Finnish) and in June 2021 the group’s 2nd album “TOIVO” (meaning “hope” in Finnish) was released on the German label BERTHOLD records. KAMA Kollektiv has toured in The Netherlands, Germany and Finland, and in spring 2021 they got selected to the “European Jazz Meeting” – showcase category at the international jazz conference jazzahead! in Bremen, Germany. She is also involved in other original, aspiring groups like KMH, Kurkuma (led by Irene Sorozabal), puntjudith and Barmy57, and has a duo-project with composer and multi-instrumentalist Christiaan de Jong.
Kirsi-Marja Harju
Kirsi-Marja “Kiki” Harju (27.01.1993) is a Finnish trumpet player, singer and composer based in Amsterdam. “I didn’t choose the trumpet, the trumpet chose me,” she recalls. “I wanted to play everything else, particularly violin, but as a kid I made mistakes in the music school exam, I was so nervous.” She was put into the wind department, given a pocket trumpet and soon found she could play beautiful melodies. She also sang. “My friends said I was too loud but I loved it. I was in choirs and vocal groups at school. Later I heard Chet Baker and realised I could combine the two.”
Harju has studied music both in Finland and in The Netherlands, and lastly she graduated as Bachelor of Music from the jazz department of Conservatorium van Amsterdam in 2019. There her teachers in trumpet playing were Jan Wessels, Ruud Breuls, Jarmo Hoogendijk and Jan Oosthof. She got lessons also from quest teachers like Alex Sipiagin, Ambrose Akinmusire, Terrell Stafford and Mathias Eick. Vocals she has studied for example with Humphrey Campbell and Sanni Orasmaa.
She has worked with a wide range of different kinds of groups and music styles, from orchestras and big bands to duos and pop-groups, performing in different kinds of venues and festivals around Europe. In Finland she was active in a 12-piece jazz group Mikko Sarvanne Hip Company (WE JAZZ Rising Star- winner 2014) and they performed for example at Oslo Jazz Festival, Pori Jazz, St. Petersburg Filharmonic Hall and Viapori Jazz. In 2013 she founded her first own group Kiki-O, and started writing her own music.
Currently she composes, teaches, performs and leads her group KAMA Kollektiv. In 2019 Harju produced and released their first album “KOTI” (which means “home” in Finnish) and in June 2021 the group’s 2nd album “TOIVO” (meaning “hope” in Finnish) was released on the German label BERTHOLD records. KAMA Kollektiv has toured in The Netherlands, Germany and Finland, and in spring 2021 they got selected to the “European Jazz Meeting” – showcase category at the international jazz conference jazzahead! in Bremen, Germany. She is also involved in other original, aspiring groups like KMH, Kurkuma (led by Irene Sorozabal), puntjudith and Barmy57, and has a duo-project with composer and multi-instrumentalist Christiaan de Jong.
Discography
Kurkuma
Irene Sorozábal
Kirsi-Marja Harju
Adrián Moncada
Pedro Ivo Ferreira
George Hadow