Susanna Mälkki

Susanna Mälkki (born Helsinki, Finland, 13 March 1969) is a Finnish conductor. Trained as a cellist as a pupil of Hannu Kiiski, she later studied conducting with Jorma Panula,[1] as well as Eri Klas and Leif Segerstam, at the Sibelius Academy. She has also studied at London's Royal Academy of Music.[2] She participated in a Sibelius Academy Conductor's Workshop at Carnegie Hall in 1998, under the supervision of Panula and Esa-Pekka Salonen.[3]

From 1995 to 1998, she was first cellist in the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra (GSO). She left her position with the GSO to devote herself to conducting[2]. From 2002–2005, she was the music director of the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra.[4] 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.

Her other work in contemporary music includes opera productions. Mälkki conducted 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".[1] She has also conducted Neither by Morton Feldman (text of Samuel Beckett) in Copenhagen in 2004, and Kaija Saariaho's L'Amour de Loin at the Finnish National Opera. Her guest conducting engagements have included work with the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group (BCMG).[5] In 2006, she conducted Kaija Saariaho's La Passion de Simone at Peter Sellars' New Crowned Hope Festival in Vienna.[6]

Mälkki made her New Zealand conducting debut in November 2006 with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra.[7][8] Her North American conducting debut was in February 2007 with the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra.[9] Her conducting debut at the BBC Proms was in July 2007, leading the London Sinfonietta.[10][11]

On August 21, 2010, she conducted the Boston Symphony Orchestra at the Tanglewood Festival, in a program that included the Beethoven Fourth Symphony, as well as Felix Mendelssohn's Concerto for Violin and Piano with Joshua Bell and Jeremy Denk as the soloists.[12] In February 2011, she returned to the Boston Symphony with a program that included the American premiere of Unsuk Chin's cello concerto, with Alban Gerhardt as soloist.[13]

She has recorded two works of Stuart MacRae for the NMC label, Two Scenes from the Death of Count Ugolino and Motus[14]

References

  1. ^ a b Charlotte Higgins (22 March 2001). "In a class of her own". London: The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4156735,00.html. Retrieved 2007-01-19. 
  2. ^ Andrew Clark, "Idealist with a determined streak." Financial Times, 1 March 2005.
  3. ^ Allan Kozinn, "CRITIC'S NOTEBOOK; Gestures, Nods and Eyebrows to Inspire Conductors." New York Times, 27 February 1998.
  4. ^ Lawrence Van Gelder (compiler), "Arts, Briefly": "On the Conductorial Front". New York Times, June 11, 2005.
  5. ^ Matthew Rye (27 March 2001). "Seven Words is one too many". London: Telegraph. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2001/03/27/bmcbso27.xml. Retrieved 2007-02-16.  ;Review from The Guardian, 28 March 2001, of concert with BCMG with music of David Sawer, Bent Sorensen, and Claire Chipperfield ;Review from The Guardian, 2 February 2002, of premiere of Deirdre Gribbin work "Venus Blazing" ;Review from The Guardian, 6 May 2002, of BCMG performance of Feldman/Beckett Neither;Ivan Hewett (9 May 2002). "Masterpiece of music-theatre rescued from oblivion". London: Telegraph. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2002/05/09/bmivan09.xml. Retrieved 2007-02-16. ; "A pace that makes rigor mortis seem athletic". Telegraph, 19 June 2002;Review from The Guardian, 8 May 2003, of BCMG performance of Param Vir's Theatre of Magical Beings; Review from The Guardian, 8 March 2005, of BCMG performance of music by Huw Watkins and Stuart MacRae
  6. ^ Mark Swed, "Getting inside a haunting outsider". Los Angeles Times, 29 November 2006.
  7. ^ Dart, William (8 November 2006). "Instinctive desire to bring out beauty". The New Zealand Herald. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/arts-literature/news/article.cfm?c_id=18&objectid=10409580. Retrieved 15 November 2011. 
  8. ^ Garth Wilshere, Review of NZSO, conductor Susanna Mälkki, violin soloist Vadim Repin, Michael Fowler Centre. Capital Times, 8 November 2006.
  9. ^ Sarah Bryan Miller, "Orchestra sails through a nautical theme". St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 4 February 2007.
  10. ^ Clements, Andrew (2 August 2007). "London Sinfonietta/Malkki (review of Prom 25, 2007)". The Guardian. http://music.guardian.co.uk/proms2007/story/0,,2140066,00.html. Retrieved 2007-08-03. 
  11. ^ Ivan Hewett (1 August 2007). "BBC Proms review: Epic density and scope". London: Telegraph. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2007/08/02/nosplit/bmproms102.xml. Retrieved 2007-08-04. 
  12. ^ Larry Murray (23 August 2010). "Conductor Susanna Mälkki stuns Tanglewood regulars with transparent Beethoven". Berkshire Onstage. http://berkshireonstage.com/2010/08/23/conductor-susanna-malkki-stuns-tanglewood-regulars-with-transparent-beethoven/. Retrieved 2010-08-28. 
  13. ^ Jeremy Eichler (11 February 2011). "Unsilent woods: BSO plays Unsuk Chin, Haydn, Dvorak, and Sibelius". Boston Globe. 
  14. ^ Larry Murray (23 August 2010). "Conductor Susanna Mälkki stuns Tanglewood regulars with transparent Beethoven". London: Berkshire Onstage. http://arts.guardian.co.uk/critic/review/0,,1862267,00.html. Retrieved 2010-08-28. 

External links

Preceded by
Ole Kristian Ruud		 Music Director, Stavanger Symphony Orchestra
2002–2005		 Succeeded by
Steven Sloane

Pierre Boulez (1976) · Péter Eötvös (1979) · David Robertson (1992) · Jonathan Nott (2000) · Susanna Mälkki (2006)