Susanna Mälkki

Susanna Mälkki (born March 13, 1969, Helsinki, Finland) is a Finnish conductor, especially of contemporary composers and opera, known for being the first woman to conduct (2011) a production at Milan’s La Scala and for serving as chief conductor of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra beginning in 2016–17.

Mälkki grew up in Vuosaari, a suburb of Helsinki. She cemented her interest in music in the 1980s at summer camp and soon after began studying cello more seriously. In 1994 she won the Turku National Cello Competition in Finland, and in 1995 she secured first cello in the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, the national orchestra of Sweden, where she remained through 1998. While still a concert cellist, she studied conducting at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki and chose to pursue that musical avenue. From 2002 to 2005 Mälkki was the music director of the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra, Norway, and in 2006 she became the first woman music director of the Ensemble Intercontemporain chamber orchestra (founded by Pierre Boulez in 1976) in Paris. During her years in that role, she was guest conductor for opera houses, symphonies, chamber orchestras, and contemporary ensembles throughout North America and Europe, significantly for La Scala in 2011; she was the first woman ever to conduct a production in that opera company’s history.

Though Mälkki was known for her expertise in conducting works by classical composers, she was particularly recognized for championing contemporary works by composers such as Thomas Adès, Thea Musgrave, and György Ligeti. She was also an internationally regarded conductor of opera. Notable opera productions led by Mälkki included Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro (Finnish National Opera, 2014), Leoš Janácek’s Jenufa (Hamburg State Opera, 2014), and Unsuk Chin’s contemporary Alice in Wonderland (Los Angeles Philharmonic, in collaboration with the Los Angeles Opera, 2015).

In 2015 Mälkki was appointed chief conductor of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra (to commence in the 2016–17 season), joining only a handful of women who had risen to that rank in the classical music world. She was also tapped by the Los Angeles Philharmonic to serve, beginning in 2017, as its principal guest conductor—making her the first woman and the first person in a generation to hold that post. In the 2016–17 season she had her debut with New York City’s Metropolitan Opera, leading the company’s first performances of L’Amour de loin by Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho. Mälkki appeared at the Paris Opera, conducting the world premiere of Luca Francesconi’s Trompe-la-Mort (2017), Antonín Dvořák’s Rusalka (2019), and Philippe Boesmans’s Yvonne, princesse de Bourgogne (2020). She also conducted Gottfried von Einem’s Dantons Tod at the Vienna State Opera (2018). In 2021 Mälkki debuted at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, conducting the world premiere of Saariaho’s opera Innocence with the London Symphony Orchestra. Her tenure at the Los Angeles Philharmonic ended in 2022.

Her honours included the Pro Finlandia Medal of the Order of the Lion of Finland, which she received in 2011. In addition, Mälkki was a fellow of the Royal Academy of Music in London and a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music.