Susanna Mälkki has been named Musical America’s 2017 Conductor of the Year. Previous winners include Osmo Vänska, Marin Alsop and Gianandrea Noseda.
Speaking about the award, Musical America said: “There is no doubt that this is a banner year for Susanna Mälkki, and we believe that this is the perfect time to pay tribute to her accomplishments thus far and to herald her future.”
Having just begun her tenure as Chief Conductor of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, from Autumn 2017 Mälkki becomes Principal Guest Conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic – a post she currently holds with the Gulbenkian Orchestra. She regularly works with other leading orchestras worldwide including the New York Philharmonic, Berliner Philharmoniker, London Philharmonic and BBC Symphony orchestras, Chamber Orchestra of Europe and Orchestra Filarmonica del Teatro La Fenice. Recent and forthcoming returns include the San Francisco, Chicago and New World symphony orchestras, London Sinfonietta, Oslo Philharmonic, Swedish Radio Symphony and The Cleveland orchestras.
Mälkki will make her debut with The Metropolitan Opera in December, and in spring 2017 will return to Opéra national de Paris. Past opera highlights include engagements with the Finnish National Theatre, Teatro alla Scala and Staatsoper Hamburg.
A Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music in London since 2010, Mälkki was awarded the Pro Finlandia Medal of the Order of the Lion of Finland in 2011 and this year was made a Chevalier of the Légion d’honneur in France.
