Lilli Paasikivi ranks amongst the world’s leading interpreters of the Mahler song-cycles and symphonies. Appearances have included Das Lied von der Erde and Des Knaben Wunderhorn with the Los Angeles Philharmonic (Salonen); Symphony No.2 with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra (Oramo) and NHK Symphony Orchestra (Paavo Järvi); Symphony No.3 with the London Symphony Orchestra (Paavo Järvi); Symphony No.8 with the Berliner Philharmoniker (Rattle); Kindertotenlieder with the New World Symphony (Tilson Thomas); and Das Lied von der Erde with the London Philharmonic Orchestra (Elder). She made her debut with the New York Philharmonic (Maazel) in the world-premiere of Rodion Shchedrin’s The Enchanted Wanderer returning for Mahler’s Symphony No.2 and Verdi’s Messa da Requiem both under Alan Gilbert. 

Since making her debut with Sir Simon Rattle and the Berliner Philharmoniker as Fricka in the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence’s production of Der Ring des Nibelungen, Wagnerian roles have become central to Lilli Paasikivi’s work on stage with notable performances at La Monnaie as Brangäne, at Staatsoper Hamburg as Fricka and at Oper Frankfurt as Kundry. This season she sings Fricka in Der Ring des Nibelungen at Finnish National under the baton of Susanna Mälkki.