Ensemble Intercontemporain - L'Ensemble Intercontemporain

Susanna Mälkki very quickly obtained recognition on the international conducting circuit. Her versatility and broad repertoire have taken her to symphony orchestras, chamber orchestras, contemporary music ensembles and opera. She is currently Music Director of the Ensemble intercontemporain and she was Artistic Director of the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra until the end of 2005.
Born in Helsinki, Susanna Mälkki had a successful career as a cellist before studying conducting under Jorma Panula and Leif Segerstam at the Sibelius Academy. From 1995 to 1998, she was principal cello at the Gothenberg Symphony Orchestra in Sweden - an orchestra she now guest conducts regularly.
Very committed to contemporary music, she had worked regularly with many ensembles before conducting the Ensemble intercontemporain for the first time in an all-Birtwistle programme at the Lucerne Festival in 2004. The concert was the catalyst for her appointment as Music Director. In March 2007, she conducted the thirtieth anniversary concert of the Ensemble alongside with Pierre Boulez and Peter Eötvös.
In recent seasons Susanna Mälkki has conducted many prestigious orchestras including Berliner Philharmoniker, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Münchner Philharmoniker, Boston Symphony Orchestra and the NDR Sinfonie Orchester. She has also worked with the Wiener Symphoniker, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France.
In August 2008 Susanna Mälkki conducted the American premiere of Kaija Saariaho’s La passion de Simone at Lincoln Center in New York, a work which she premiered with Klangforum Wien in 2006. Other opera commitments have included Thomas Ades's Powder Her Face, Neither by Morton Feldman/Samuel Beckett in Copenhagen, Saariaho's L'Amour de Loin and Der Rosenkavalier at Finnish National Opera. In spring 2010 she will conduct the world premiere of a ballet by Bruno Mantovani at Opéra National de Paris.
Highlights in coming seasons include debuts with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Pittsburgh Symphony, and the San Francisco, Houston and National Symphony Orchestras. In Europe, she will make her first appearances with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden und Freiburg, and the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks. She will also debut with the NHK Symphony Orchestra in Tokyo.
In addition, Susanna Mälkki will return to the Boston Symphony, Philharmonia, Royal Concertgebouw, and the BBC Symphony Orchestras. She will also appear again with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Swedish Radio Symphony and the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestras.
January 2010