Ilkka Arola
(b. 1988) is a Finnish trumpet player and multi-instrumentalist who writes music full of powerful stories, strong rhythms and cinematic soundscapes. ​

Ilkka Arola started as a jazz musician but he nowadays sees himself more as a crossover artist always looking for new interesting music to get inspired from. Traveling in Middle East and Africa has had a great impact on his music as well as recognizing his own roots in Nordic culture. His special Quartertone trumpet and flugelhorn allow him to play Arabic maqams and other microtonal music.

In quest for meaningful music making Arola started to imitate human voice with his trumpet. By singing through his trumpet Arola tells powerful stories without words. A good story is something Arola is always looking for when writing and arranging music. His has released two full length albums - From the Depths of the Earth (2017) and Land Ahead! (2019).

Besides leading his own group, Ilkka Arola works as a teacher, composer and arranger, and performs regularly with variety of groups as a horn, percussion, ukulele and bouzouki player as well as a background singer. Ilkka Arola completed his Master studies in Aarhus, Denmark in 2016 (The Nordic Master of Global Music) which included intensive field studies in Palestine, Egypt, Mali and India. Before that he studied pop and jazz music and pedagogics in Helsinki Pop & Jazz Conservatory and Helsinki Metropolia the University of Applied Sciences. ​