Markus Kaitila (b. Helsinki, 1992) has appeared as a soloist with the Joutseno Art Summer, Wratislavia, St. Peter’s Festival, Queens College, and Jackson Heights chamber orchestras as well as the One World and New Amsterdam Symphony orchestras, under conductors such as Tong Chen and Charles Neidich. He also conducted Bach’s Keyboard Concerto in E Major, from the piano at LeFrak Concert Hall (New York) in 2016. He won Bronze Prize in the 2nd WPTA Finland International Piano Competition 2020 and First Prize at the Köhler-Osbahr piano competition (Duisburg) in 2013. Additionally, he has won First and Second Prizes in national chamber music competitions (Juvenalia, E. Melartin) and remains an active and widely experienced chamber musician.
Markus’ performances in Europe and the United States include the Wiener Saal (Salzburg), Musica Mundi Festival (Belgium), Yamaha Artists Services Europe (Paris), Theater Duisburg and Jahrhunderthalle Bochum, Klavier-Festival Ruhr, the Embassy of Finland (Budapest), Palazzo Ricci (Montepulciano), Muziekcentrum Enschede, Helsingborg Piano Festival, and RNCM (Manchester); as well as New York’s Mannes, Merkin and Carnegie Halls. He has been awarded grants and stipends by Vantaan Perinnejazz ry, Wihuri and Finnish Cultural Foundation, Sibelius Academy’s Endowment Funds, and the Queens College Foundation. Markus received the Stephen Schaible and Daron Builta Scholarship to attend the Music Academy of the West’s solo piano fellowship program, and completed residences at the Chautauqua Institution in New York, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, and Pianofest in the Hamptons.
Markus began to play the piano at age six. After studies at the Junior Academy of Sibelius Academy with Dr. Hui-Ying Liu-Tawaststjerna, he studied at the Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen, Germany, with Till Engel. Markus holds a master of music and an advanced certificate in piano performance and pedagogy from NYU Steinhardt, 2020, where he studied with Eteri Andjaparidze and taught piano lessons and keyboard skills as a member of the adjunct faculty in Piano Studies. In 2017, he graduated cum laude with a bachelor of music in piano performance from the Aaron Copland School of Music, City University of New York Queens College, under the tutelage of Nina Lelchuk. He has participated in masterclasses with Thomas Adès, Paul Badura-Skoda, Leon Fleisher, Alan Gilbert, Angela Hewitt, Leslie Howard, Jerome Lowenthal, Robert McDonald, Jon Nakamatsu, and Boris Slutsky.