Born in the United States and raised in Finland, Elina Vähälä made her orchestral debut with Sinfonia Lahti at the age of twelve and was later chosen by Osmo Vänskä as the orchestra’s “young master soloist”. Since that time, her career has continued to expand on international stages, winning praise from audiences and musicians alike as “a fluent, stylish and gifted musician whose brilliant technique is matched by an abundant spirit, sensitivity and imagination” (Chicago Tribune). 

Elina Vähälä appears regularly with all of the key Finnish orchestras as well being a regular guest of orchestras across the globe such as Houston Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, Nashville Symphony, Oregon Symphony, Vancouver Symphony, Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra, Singapore Symphony Beethoven Orchester Bonn, Dortmund Philharmoniker, Istanbul State Symphony, Malmo Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg, RTVE Spanish Radio Orchestra, and has toured throughout the UK, Finland, Germany, China, Korea and South America.  She enjoys a fruitful working partnership with many leading conductors such as Leonard Slatkin, Carlos Kalmar, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Okko Kamu, Jakub Hrůša, Thierry Fischer, Sakari Oramo, Leif Segerstam, Josep Caballé-Domenech, Alexander Liebreich, and Michał Nesterowicz. 

Elina Vähälä has given world premieres of Aulis Sallinen's Chamber Concerto, Curtis Curtis-Smith's Double Concerto, Jaakko Kuusisto’s Concerto, and Kalevi Aho’s Concerto no 2, all of which were written for her, as well as the Jan Sandström’s Concerto. In addition, Elina Vähälä gave the first Nordic performance of Corigliano’s Violin Concerto ‘The Red Violin’ and continues to be one of the soloists of choice for this work. Befitting her Finnish roots, she is one of very few to perform the Sibelius concerto in its early version.

In 2009 Elina Vähälä launched the Violin Academy; funded by the Finnish Cultural Foundation, the academy is a master class based educational project for highly talented young Finnish violinists.  She has been professor at the Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst in Vienna since September 2019.