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Lauri Kahilainen (1916-?) was a folk kantele player from Viitasaari, Finland. Kahilainen played both melodies and accompaniments with the kantele. He served with the Finnish army in the Second World War and played the kantele for his fellow soldiers. After the war, Kahilainen acquired a twenty‑eight string double bottomed kantele. He played with such groups as the "Antti Vesterinen Pelimannit" and the "Jyväskylän Pelimannit," and performed with the Jyväskylä University Folk Dance Ensemble during several summers in the early 1970s, on their tours throughout Europe. He was a founding member of the Central Finland Folk Musicians. Kahilainen was invited to tour the United States as part of a folk group representing Finland in the United States' Bicentennial Celebration, Festival of American FolkLife. He toured extensively throughout the United States and was invited to Seattle, Washington in 1981 to play a series of concerts as well as to be recorded and interviewed by the University of Washington's Ethnomusicology department.