Jukka Rautasalo (b. 1966) began his career as a cellist and subsequently specialised in playing the viol as well. In 1985, early on in his studies at the Sibelius Academy, he joined the Avanti! Chamber Orchestra and was, for instance, artistic planner for two of the orchestra’s Suvisoitto festivals in Porvoo. Since 1996, he has played 3rd Principal Cello with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra.

Rautasalo has both played and conducted Baroque music with several orchestras in Finland. He was artistic director and conductor of the Sixth Floor Orchestra (now the Finnish Baroque Orchestra) for a four-year period from 2001 to 2004, during which time they recorded an album titled The Classical Age in Finland, containing all the known orchestral music written in Finland in the 18th century.