Susanna Mälkki is a much sought-after artist on the international conducting circuit. Her versatility and broad repertoire have taken her to symphony orchestras, chamber orchestras, contemporary music ensembles and opera houses around the world. She is currently Music Director of the Ensemble intercontemporain, having been Artistic Director of Stavanger Symphony Orchestra.

In recent seasons Susanna Mälkki has conducted many prestigious orchestras including the Berliner Philharmoniker, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the Pittsburgh Symphony and Boston Symphony orchestras. She has also conducted the NHK Symphony Orchestra and Wiener Symphoniker and works regularly with the Philharmonia Orchestra.

Highlights in coming seasons include her debuts with both the Chicago Symphony and San Francisco Symphony orchestras and a return to the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and Mostly Mozart festival, New York. In addition, in the current season Susanna Mälkki will conduct the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI, Orchestre Symphonique de la Monnaie, and the Swedish Radio Symphony and Finnish Radio Symphony orchestras.

In April 2011 she made her debut at La Scala, Milan – the first woman to conduct an opera at La Scala in the house’s prestigious history – and has already been invited to return to conduct concerts with the orchestra. 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 Thomas Adès's Powder Her Face and Neither by Morton Feldman in Copenhagen.

Susanna Mälkki made her debut with the Ensemble intercontemporain in August 2004 with an all-Birtwistle programme at the Luzern 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 Göteborgs Symfoniker in Sweden. In June 2010 she was elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music in London.