Finnish violinist Laura Arpiainen started her international career at the age of eleven, as a member of the praised ensemble, Helsinki Strings, participating in concert tours of Asia, Europe and North America. She has since gone on to perform at Carnegie Hall with the Sibelius Academy Symphony Orchestra and with the New York String Orchestra. Ms. Arpiainen has also performed at the Concertgebow in Amsterdam with the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival Orchestra. In 1998 Ms. Arpiainen was named a Fulbright scholar for music studies in the US.
As a soloist, Ms. Arpiainen has performed with the Joutseno Music Festival Orchestra in Joutseno, Finland. In 1992 she was nominated the Young Artist of East Helsinki and was invited to perform two solo recitals in the Aino Ackté pavilion. She has also given chamber music performances in Germany as part of the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival and performed chamber music pieces in concerts of the Korvat Auki! Association of contemporary Finnish composers. Ms. Arpiainen has worked with conductors Paavo Berglund , Esa-Pekka Salonen and Leif Segerstam in Finland and withJaime Laredo, Pierre Boulez, Charles Dutoit and Stanislaw Skrowaszevski in the US.
To further her musical studies, Ms. Arpiainen came to the New England Conservatory in Boston in 1998 to complete her Bachelor of violin performance degree, studying with James Buswell IV. In 2003 she completed her Master of violin performance degree in Manhattan School of Music in New York with Curtis Macomber.
After her graduation, Ms. Arpiainen spent several years as an active freelance musician in the New York area, spanning her repertoire from classical music to Argentinean tango and jazz. She has performed at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C, Joe’s Pub and The Jazz Gallery in New York and the Regattabar in Boston, among other venues. She is also an active recording artist, appearing on such CDs as Helsinki Strings’Nordic Sounds (Finlandia Records, 1996),Contrasts (Finlandia Records, 1997), Katie Viqueira’s Amores Torcidos (El Bandoneón XXI, 2004), Mika Pohjola’s Moomin Voices (Change Records, 2003), Leivonen Lumimyrskyssä (Change Records, 2005) and Felipe Salles’ Mind Motions (Fresh Sound, 2003) and South American Suite (Curare Records, 2008).
Alongside a performing career, Ms. Arpiainen has always been a dedicated teacher, establishing a teaching studio in every city she has lived in, as well as teaching at the after school music program at the Cider Mill Elementary in Wilton, CT. Since her move to the Pioneer Valley and after becoming a mother of two boys, Ms. Arpiainen has focused her interests towards public school music teaching. Having been brought up with the Kodály method, Ms. Arpiainen firmly believes that every child has innate ability to appreciate and make music if given the right tools.
Ms. Arpiainen currently teaches music at Blueberry Hill School in Longmeadow, Massachusetts.