Susanna Mälkki

Susanna Ulla Marjukka Mälkki (born 13 March 1969 in Helsinki, Finland) is a Finnish conductor and cellist. She is the daughter of Pirkko Liisa Vainio and the marine scientist Pentti Mälkki. She began to learn the violin, piano, and cello in her youth, and eventually focused her studies on the cello.

Mälkki continued her cello studies with Hannu Kiiski, and later studied conducting with Jorma Panula, as well as Eri Klas and Leif Segerstam, at the Sibelius Academy. She also studied at London's Royal Academy of Music. She participated in a Sibelius Academy Conductor's Workshop at Carnegie Hall in 1998, under the supervision of Panula and Esa-Pekka Salonen.

In 1994, Mälkki won the 1st prize in the Turku National Cello Competition. From 1995 to 1998, she was principal cellist in the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra. She left her Gothenburg position to devote herself to conducting.^[2] From 2002–2005, she was the music director of the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra. Her debut with the Ensemble InterContemporain (EIC) was in August 2004, in a program of Harrison Birtwistle at the Lucerne Festival. She became the EIC's Music Director in 2006, the first woman to hold the post, and served as the EIC's music director until 2013. She continues to maintain a residence in Paris. In May 2013, she was appointed Principal Guest Conductor of the Gulbenkian Orchestra, with an initial contract of 3 years, effective July 2013. In September 2014, Mälkki was named the next Chief Conductor of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, effective autumn 2016, the first woman to be named to this post.

Mälkki is known as a specialist in contemporary music. Her work in contemporary music includes several world premieres and opera productions, such as conducting the Finnish premiere of Thomas Adès' Powder Her Face in 1999, which led to Adès inviting Mälkki to be his assistant for further performances of this opera in the UK, at the Almeida Theatre, where, as she noted, "I ended up conducting some of the performances". She conducted the world premiere of Luca Francesconi's opera "Quartett" at La Scala in Milan in 2011, becoming the first woman ever to conduct an opera production in the history of the house.

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