Ari-Pekka Mäenpää

Ari-Pekka Mäenpää began his percussion studies at the Länsi-Uusimaa Music Institute under the guidance of Pauli Hämäläinen. His professional studies started at the Helsinki Conservatory and continued at the Sibelius Academy, where his teachers included Markku Hannola, Lassi Erkkilä, and Mongo Aaltonen. He graduated with excellent grades as a Master of Music in 1999. Mäenpää has also pursued further studies in Berlin and Milan, studying with, among others, Professor David Searcy.

Since his student days, Mäenpää has worked as a substitute or assisting musician in nearly all city orchestras in Finland, as well as in the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Finnish National Opera Orchestra, and the Avanti! Chamber Orchestra. He has performed as a chamber musician at all of Finland’s major music festivals, and since 2001, he has also played in the orchestra of the Savonlinna Opera Festival. Mäenpää joined the Turku Philharmonic Orchestra in 2001, first as a percussionist and later as principal timpanist.

In 2016, Mäenpää premiered Kalevi Aho’s concerto for timpani and orchestra in Turku; the work has also been recorded for the BIS record label. He teaches percussion at the Arts Academy of Turku University of Applied Sciences and at the Turku Conservatory.

In his free time, he enjoys living in a detached house, playing tennis, and skiing.