Ari Poutiainen

Ari Poutiainen (born 1972 in Kaarlela, Finland) is a Finnish contemporary jazz violinist, violist, composer, and researcher. He is famous for employing a rare, hybrid 5-string viola (both acoustic and electric) 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.

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 (West Africa), 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 (June 2011), Strings (January 2010), and Fiddler Magazine (Summer 2010).

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