VALISALO, Maili

Maili Välisalo (or Maili Välisalo-Wright) was a Finnish composer, pianist, singer, reciter, and music educator born in Ruokolahti. She studied chamber music at the Viipuri Music Institute under Boris Sirpo and later attended the Helsinki Conservatory (now the Sibelius Academy), where she studied piano with Ernst Lingo, singing with Lahja Lingo, and composition with Sulho Ranta and Erkki Melartin between 1932 and 1939. During her student years she composed several solo songs, a fugue for string quartet, and the piano piece Canzonetta (1932), the only surviving work from her output. Contemporary critics regarded her as a promising young composer, although reviews often reflected the gendered attitudes of the period. During the Second World War she served in the Lotta Svärd organization and conducted the Ruokolahti women's choir before working as a school music teacher in her hometown, where she remained until her death in 1993.