A much sought-after artist on the international conducting circuit, SUSANNA MÄLKKI’s versatility and broad repertoire have taken her to symphony orchestras, chamber orchestras, contemporary music ensembles and opera houses throughout the world. She is currently Music Director of the Ensemble intercontemporain, having previously been Artistic Director of the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra.

Recent highlights have included debuts with the Chicago and San Francisco symphony orchestras, as well as returns to the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra (at the Holland Festival), Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Mostly Mozart Festival in New York, and appearances with the Berliner Philharmoniker, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Gulbenkian Orchestra and the Indianapolis, Pittsburgh, Seattle, Gothenburg, Swedish Radio and Finnish Radio symphony orchestras. She returned to the 2012 BBC Proms to conduct the Philharmonia Orchestra, with whom she works regularly.

This season sees Mälkki work with the ORF Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien, Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden und Freiburg, Tampere Philharmonic and Netherlands Radio Philharmonic orchestras. In North America, she will give performances with the Detroit, New World and New Jersey symphony orchestras and will return to the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Further ahead, she will return to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

In April 2011 she made her debut at La Scala, Milan – the first woman to do so in the opera house’s prestigious history – and has already been invited to return (in January 2014). In spring 2010 she conducted the world premiere of a ballet by Bruno Mantovani at Opéra national de Paris and will conduct two productions there in the 2013/14 season. Other opera commitments have included Der Rosenkavalier and Saariaho's L'Amour de Loin at Finnish National Opera and the world premiere of Marco Stroppa’s Re Orso at the Opéra Comique in Paris.

Susanna Mälkki made her debut with the Ensemble intercontemporain in August 2004 with an all-Birtwistle programme at the Lucerne Festival; the concert was the catalyst for her appointment as Music Director in 2006. A former student at the Sibelius Academy, Susanna Mälkki studied with Jorma Panula and Leif Segerstam. Prior to her conducting studies, she had a successful career as a cellist and from 1995 to 1998 she was one of the principals of the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra in Sweden. In June 2010 she was elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music in London and she is also a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music. In 2011, Mälkki was awarded the Pro Finlandia Medal of the Order of the Lion of Finland, one of Finland’s highest honours.