Ari Poutiainen

Ari Poutiainen is a Finnish jazz violinist, violist, composer, and researcher. He often plays a 5-string viola (both acoustic and electric) beside violin, his main instrument.

Poutiainen's original, modern jazz style is based on long studies and performance career in Finland, Europe and the USA. Beside his career  as a jazz violinist and 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 in the anarchistic marching band called The Bad Ass Brass Band. He appears on approximately 50 albums as a leader, sideman, composer, arranger or conductor.

His doctoral 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 in "The Strad" (June 2011), "Strings" (January 2010), and "Fiddler Magazine" (Summer 2010).

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 works as an associate professor of music education at the University of Helsinki and teacher of string improvisation at the Sibelius Academy.

Ari teaches one-to-one on violin and viola. His specialities are...
- schematic fingering (fingering type that avoids the use of open strings and focuses on simple, tactile and kinesthetic patterns)
- position playing and shifting (important aspects of schematic fingering)
- intermediate level modern jazz strings pedagogy
- Nordic jazz style (type of expression by Jon Balke, Keith Jarrett's "Belonging Quartet" and Tord Gustavsen, for example). Key words describing this style are use of space, modal expression, peace and melancholic moods.