Mari Meentalo is a musician, composer, producer, manager and a teacher who feels at home in the fields of electronic and traditional music. She has improved her skills in many ways: from creating school musicals and participating in Eesti Laul song contest to being a street musician in China and doing live-rave performances at the Burning Man festival in the USA.
Meentalo graduated from the Estonian University of Life Sciences with a Bachelor’s degree in Landscape Architecture in 2010, followed by Urban Studies at the Estonian Academy of Arts. In 2018, she graduated from the University of Tartu Viljandi Culture Academy, majoring in Estonian traditional music. Her main instruments are flute, Estonian bagpipes, mouth harp, vocals and loopers. Since 2017, Meentalo has worked together with Johannes Ahun, Aleksander Sprohgis and Raho Aadla in acidfolk band OOPUS. Since 2020 she and her bandmates curate a stage dedicated to the folktronica genre at Tallinn Music Week.
She has released two studio albums Nõidus (2019), Folk On Acid (2022) and one live impro album Inventing Lunar Cycle (2022) with her band OOPUS. Meentalo also worked with Kristjan Järvi on his album Nordic Escapes (2020), released an album Imemaa (2014) with Estonian Folk Orchestra and several singles with her band Meister ja Mari, produced solo tracks, etc. In 2019, Mari Meentalo received a special award from the festival patron Ingrid Rüütel at Mooste Elohelü, Estonian Folk Music Arrangements Festival. The same year, she was nominated for the Musician of the Year award at Estonian traditional music awards Etnokulp.