Joel Laakso is the 1.principal cellist of The Royal Danish Orchestra, the worlds oldest orchestra. First glance to a new musical artform of opera has felt most inspiring to Joel ever since he started in Copenhagen 2013. Earlier he used to be a member of the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra and also played over a decade as a cellist in the famous New Helsinki Quartet among various other chamber-music activities.

Concert-tours have taken him into most of the European countries, USA, South America, Africa, China, Japan and Australia. As a soloist Joel has performed concertos by Haydn, Beethoven, Saint-Saens, Schönberg and Tistsenko together with f.ex. FRSO and Tapiola Sinfonietta.

He is currently the artistic leader of Riihimäki Summer Concerts. Joel plays a cello made by Nicola Amati from early 17th-century, kindly loaned to him by The Royal Danish Orchestra.

As a teacher, his background has been mainly on the field of chamber-music, but he has also enjoyed instrumental teaching on a side. Joel is welcoming all cellists of any age/level to participate his lessons!

Photo by Martin Asbak Boensvang