Carnegie Hall

Susanna Mälkki is sought after at the highest level with symphony orchestras and in opera houses worldwide. In her final season as chief conductor of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra (HPO), she concludes a seven-year tenure with a distinctive dynamism and imaginative flair to her programming. In addition to a full season in Finland, she has led the HPO on tour to the prestigious Lucerne and Edinburgh festivals, and continues on to Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center in Washington DC.

Ms. Mälkki appears regularly with top orchestras throughout Europe and North America: the Los Angeles Philharmonic, where she was principal guest conductor from 2017 through 2022; The Philadelphia Orchestra; The Cleveland Orchestra; New York and Munich philharmonics; Chicago, Boston, London, Vienna, and Bavarian Radio symphony orchestras; and Berliner Philharmoniker.

Equally in demand with major opera houses, Ms. Mälkki’s past notable appearances include the Opéra national de Paris, Teatro alla Scala in Milan, Vienna State Opera, and Metropolitan Opera. This season, she visits the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, for Kaija Saariaho’s Innocence, which Ms. Mälkki premiered in 2021 at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, and the Teatro del Liceu in Barcelona for Puccini’s Il trittico. Future operatic engagements include Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande and Beethoven’s Fidelio.

Recognized for her significant contribution to the art form, Ms. Mälkki was awarded the Pro Finlandia Medal of the Order of the Lion of Finland—one of Finland’s highest honors—in 2011. She has been awarded as Officier (2014) and Commandeur (2022) of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres of France, and in January 2016, she was made a Chevalier of the Légion d’honneur in France. She is a fellow of the Royal Academy of Music in London and a member of the Kungliga Musikaliska Akademien in Stockholm. She was named Musical America’s 2017 Conductor of the Year, and in November 2017 she was awarded the Nordic Council Music Prize.

Claire Chase, described by The New York Times recently as “the North Star of her instrument’s ever-expanding universe,” is a musician, interdisciplinary artist, and educator. Passionately dedicated to the creation of new ecosystems for the music of our time, Ms. Chase has given the world premieres of hundreds of new works by a new generation of artists, and in 2013 launched the 24-year commissioning project Density 2036. Now in its 10th year, Density 2036 reimagines the solo flute literature over a quarter-century through commissions, performances, recordings, education, and an accessible archive at density2036.org.

Ms. Chase co-founded the International Contemporary Ensemble in 2001, was named a MacArthur Fellow in 2012, and in 2017 was awarded the Avery Fisher Prize from Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. Ms. Chase is currently professor of the practice of music at Harvard University’s Department of Music, a creative associate at The Juilliard School, and a collaborative partner with Esa-Pekka Salonen and the San Francisco Symphony. She is the Debs Creative Chair at Carnegie Hall for the 2022–2023 season.

Ms. Chase released the world premiere recordings of the first five years of the Density 2036 cycle in collaboration with Meyer Sound Laboratories in Berkeley, California, in December 2020. She releases the 2019–2021 cycles on a triple-album with New Focus Recordings this month.

The Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra (HPO), founded in 1882, is one of the oldest continuously operating professional symphony orchestras in the Nordic countries. The orchestra gives approximately 50 symphony concerts annually at the Helsinki Music Centre and abroad. Under Chief Conductor Susanna Mälkki, the orchestra has evolved into an increasingly impressive operator with a distinctive sound on the international classical music scene.

The orchestra has premiered most of Sibelius’s orchestral compositions, and it has profiled itself during Ms. Mälkki’s tenure as a high-class symphony orchestra that tours the most internationally renowned arenas, makes award-winning recordings, and commissions and premieres works of leading international composers.

Premieres conducted by Ms. Mälkki have included Kaija Saariaho’s Vista, which is dedicated to her; Felipe Lara’s Double Concerto; and Enno Poppe’s Fett. The HPO’s special projects have included a series of commissions called The Helsinki Variations, which celebrate 100 years of Finnish independence; and HUOM—History’s Unheard Orchestral Music, which—made in collaboration with historians and musicologists—sheds light on previously overlooked orchestral music and its composers. The orchestra is also recognized for its strong investment in reaching different audiences through the HPO Kids project and its own HKO Screen online concerts.

Ms. Mälkki and the HPO’s recordings of Bartók’s orchestral music on the BIS label have received much praise. In 2021, their recording of Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording.

During its 140 years of operation, the orchestra has made more than 100 successful tours abroad. On its first tour in 1900, the HPO headed to the world’s fair in Paris, and since then has toured on all continents. Ms. Mälkki ends her highly acclaimed tenure as the HPO’s chief conductor in spring 2023 with a focus on Finland and Finnish music, and a farewell tour that takes the orchestra to Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center.