Born in
Pori, Finland, Alexi Tuomarila started studying classical piano at the age of six at the
Espoo Music Academy, Finland. As a teenager he was enthusiastic about rock and grunge music before digging deeper into jazz through his father's record collection. In 1993 Tuomarila was accepted to Oulunkylä pop/jazz Conservatory in
Helsinki, Finland. Next year, in 1994 he continued his studies under
Diederik Wissels and
Nathalie Loriers at the
Royal Conservatory of Brussels and earned his
Master of Music degree in 1999. Currently Tuomarila is working on his doctoral research at the University of Arts,
Sibelius Academy, Helsinki. During his studies he formed his Quartet with
Nicolas Kummert,
Christophe Devisscher, and
Teun Verbruggen. In 1999 his quartet won the award for best band and Tuomarila won the prize for best soloist at the "21st Hoeilaart International Jazz Competition" Belgium. In 2001, he received the first prize at the "3rd International Jazz Soloist Competition" in
Monaco, and he won the "10th International Tremplin Jazz Competition" in
Avignon with his quartet. The Alexi Tuomarila Quartet also won the first prize at the "5th International Granada Jazz Competition" in Spain 2005. The quartet recorded and released three albums
Voices of Pohjola for
Igloo Records (Benelux) 2001, the Emma Award (Finnish Grammy) nominee
02 for
Finlandia Records -
Warner Music Group 2003, and
Runo X for Edita Cambeya (Spain) 2007. Alexi Tuomarila Quartet changed the name of the group into Drifter and welcomed
Axel Gilain as a bass player/vocalist. Drifter recorded and released the critically acclaimed
Flow album for
Edition Records, UK in 2015. In 2005 Tuomarila formed his renowned trio, with Norwegian bassist
Mats Eilertsen and Finnish drummer
Olavi Louhivuori. The trio has released four critically acclaimed albums:
Constellation for
Jazzaway Records (Norway, 2006),
Seven Hills (2013),
Kingdom (2017) and
Sphere (2019) for distinguished British
Edition Records. The latest album
Sphere earned Tuomarila the prestigious
Emma award (Finnish Grammy) for "Jazz album of the year". British
BBC Music Magazine gave the album five stars and selected it as the "Jazz album of the month" (07/2019). Tuomarila played a decade, from 2007 until 2017, with the Polish trumpet player
Tomasz Stańko in different band combinations. Their first concert together was at the 750th anniversary of the city of
Kraków. During 2009–2014 Tuomarila played with
Tomasz Stanko Quintet (
Jakob Bro, Anders Christensen,
Olavi Louhivuori) toured around the world and also recorded the
Dark Eyes for
ECM Records, 2010, which reached number five in the Polish pop charts. Between 2015 and 2017 Tuomarila performed and toured with the Tomasz Stanko NY Quartet in Europe, China and Australia with
Gerald Cleaver and
Reuben Rogers In 2023, the
Tapiola Sinfonietta and the Alexi Tuomarila Trio, featuring Sami Rahola on electronics, premiered Tuomarila's concerto "Between Dark and Light" for symphony orchestra at the
April Jazz Festival in
Tapiolasali,
Espoo Cultural Centre. The concerto was conducted by
Jukka Iisakkila. Tuomarila has also shared the stage with i.a.
Eric Revis,
Thomas Morgan (bassist),
Reggie Washington,
Joey Baron,
Kenny Wheeler,
Anders Jormin,
Kush Abadey,
Jim Black,
Nelson Veras,
Perico Sambeat,
UMO Jazz Orchestra,
Eero Koivistoinen,
Peter Erskine,
Bill Evans (saxophonist) Anders Bergcrantz,
Rick Margitza,
Maciej Obara. == Awards ==