Ari Poutiainen


Ari Poutiainen is a Finnish contemporary jazz violinist, violist, composer, and researcher. He is famous for employing a rare, hybrid 5-string viola beside violin, his main instrument. He often plucks either instrument with his fingers while holding it like a guitar. This instrumental approach enables him to produce unconventional chords and sounds on violin and viola.

Musical career

Poutiainen gained his MA degree from the Sibelius Academy in 1999. His original, modern jazz style is also based on long studies abroad - in Denmark, France, Germany, Sweden, UK, and the United States. Beside his career as a performing jazz violist, he has been a successful composer and arranger. In Finland, he has led the groups called Soul Small Instruments, Another & Fast, NoneAlike, The String Thing, and Open Strings. His groups called Ardency, Farther-Out, and Jyjy are currently active. He is a central figure and soloist in the anarchistic marching band called Bad Ass Brass Band. Poutiainen has worked and performed, for example, in Benin, France, Germany, Russia, and the United States.
Poutiainen gained his doctoral degree on jazz violin in 2009. His dissertation, Stringprovisation - A Fingering Strategy for Jazz Violin Improvisation, focuses on fingering, shifting, and position playing. These are fundamental subjects of left-hand violin technique. The study presents a unique fingering strategy that is targeted to formulaic modern jazz improvisation. This strategy excludes the use of open strings and instead relies on so-called schematic fingering. The particular advanced fingering approach reflects well the tactile and kinesthetic aspects of violin playing, and idiomatic patterns can be effectively performed with it in all keys and violin positions. Stringprovisation has been acknowledged as a groundbreaking achievement in the field of jazz violin improvisation technique, research, and pedagogy: It gained outstanding peer-reviews, for example, in The Strad, Strings, and Fiddler Magazine.
As a pedagogue and researcher, Poutiainen has specialized in bowed string instrument improvisation, having taught the subject at different levels and institutions. He has also published several scholarly articles and given conference presentations on jazz violin history and improvisation. He currently teaches music education at the University of Helsinki and string improvisation at the Sibelius Academy.

Selected discography

All listed in Tuhat.

Selected film soundtracks

Those indicated with listed in Elonet.

Selected theatre performance soundtracks

Those indicated with listed in Tuhat.
All written in English, except those indicated with written in Finnish.

Selected recent presentations

All listed in Tuhat.