Ari Rasilainen is considered one of the outstanding conductors of his generation today. He studied in the renowned conducting class of Jorma Panula at the Siblius Academy in Helsinki as well as with Arvid Jansons (conducting) and Aleksander Labko (violin) in Berlin.

Before becoming a conductor, Ari Rasilainen played in the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra and was concertmaster of the 2nd violins in the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra from 1980 to 1986. He has also performed as a soloist and chamber musician, and chamber music remains one of his passions.

From 1985 to 1989 Ari Rasilainen was Principal Conductor of the Lappeenranta City Orchestra (Finland), then Principal Guest Conductor of the Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra until 1994 and Principal Conductor of the Norwegian Radio Orchestra Oslo from 1994 to 2002. From 1994 to 1998 he also held this position with the Jyväskylä Sinfonia (Finland). Also as principal conductor, he led the Sinfonietta in Pori, Finland, from 1999 to 2004.

From 2002 to June 2009, Ari Rasilainen was General Music Director of the Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz. In addition, he has been permanent guest conductor of the Aalborg Symfoniorkester since the 2002/03 season.

At the Finnish National Opera in Helsinki, he conducted "Lohengrin", "The Magic Flute" and "Tosca", among others. At the Savonlinna Opera Festival in 2005, he took over the direction of the Finnish opera "Ratsumies" ("The Horseman") by Aulis Sallinen.

Ari Rasilainen has conducted the leading German radio orchestras (Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, hr-Sinfonieorchester, Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart des SWR, MDR-Sinfonieorchester Leipzig, NDR Radiophilharmonie Hannover and WDR Rundfunkorchester Köln), as well as the Hamburg and Bremen Philharmonic Orchestras, the Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the Bern Symphony Orchestra and the Tonkünstler Orchester Niederösterreich.

Numerous CD recordings underline the diversity of his artistic work. Ari Rasilainen can look back on a successful collaboration with various labels. In total, more than 50 recordings have been made under his musical direction, including all of Kurt Atterberg's symphonies and solo concertos as well as a large part of the symphonic works of Aulis Sallinen. Siegmund von Hausegger's Nature Symphony with the WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne was recently released.