Lauri Porra is a composer and instrumentalist of international renown. As a composer and conductor he has released three instrumental discs bearing his own name. His orchestral works have been performed by, for example, the Trondheim Symphony Orchestra, Lahti Symphony Orchestra, New Bedford Symphony Orchestra, Bratislava Symphony Orchestra and Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, which premièred a new commission, Kohta (for symphony orchestra, omniwerk and rapper), at the opening concert of the 2016 Helsinki Festival. He has also written the scores for several Finnish films and TV series.
In 2016 Lauri Porra was awarded the NPU Nordic Composer’s Prize for his wide-ranging work in the field of music; in this context he was praised for his open-minded breaking down of boundaries and his combinations of genres. Earlier that year Porra also won the Voitto Prize for the best advert music of the year and he was nominated for a Harpa Nordic Film Composer Award at the Berlin International Film Festival.
As a musician, Porra is best known as a virtuoso player working with line-ups and artists representing many different genres. He leads his own Lauri Porra Flyover Ensemble, combining musical styles ranging from rock and jazz to classical, electronic and film music. Since 2005 he has also played bass in Stratovarius, a leading Finnish metal band that has sold more than three million records worldwide. As a studio musician Porra has participated in more than forty recordings with Apocalyptica, Uusi Fantasia, Asa, Juice Leskinen and others. He has performed widely all over the world, giving concerts in more than fifty countries on five continents. A fourth-generation musician, Porra is the great-grandson of Jean Sibelius.
For more information on Lauri Porra, please visit his website.
