Born into a musical family, Olavi Louhivuori grew up in Jyväskylä, Central-Finland, surrounded by music and musicians. His father is a professor at Music Department of the University of Jyväskylä and mother a violinist and music teacher. Everyone of the seven member Louhivuori family plays an instrument. Olavi began studying violin at the age of 4, but changed to cello and piano at the age of 8. He started playing drums at the age of 9 when he was accepted into the music class of his primary school. In 1998 Olavi enrolled at the Finnish Music Conservatory of Jyväskylä for 3 years. There he joined numerous different jazz groups, including the Joona Toivanen trio and the Jyväskylä Junior Big Band. Being a familiar face in the local Jazz Bar gave him a perfect opportunity to perform and jam with local and international musicians such as Jukka Perko and Indgrid Jensen, to name but a few. The Joona Toivanen trio opened the jam sessions there every Tuesday night for three years. In 2002 Olavi moved to Helsinki to start his studies at the prestigeous Sibelius-Academy, where he studied with Jukkis Uotila. It didn´t take long before Olavi found himself working full-time both in Finland and internationally. Winning the competition of the ‘Young Nordic jazz Groups’ three times (Joona Toivanen trio 2000, Ilmiliekki Quartet 2002 and Sun trio 2006) gained him numerous performances around the world including tours in U.S.A, Australia, Asia and Europe. For the past few years Olavi has been touring the world as a drummer of Tomasz Stanko Quintet. Besides that Louhivuori has performed with internationally acclaimed artists such as Lee Konitz, Anthony Braxton, Marilyn Crispell and Susanne Abbuehl. He has also played with groups such as the Finnish UMO Jazz Orchestra and Piirpauke. Web Page