Susanna M�lkki is a Finnish conductor. Trained as a cellist as a pupil of Hannu Kiiski, she later studied conducting with Jorma Panula, as well as Eri Klas and Leif Segerstam, at the Sibelius Academy. She has also studied at London's Royal Academy of Music. She participated in a Sibelius Academy Conductor's Workshop at Carnegie Hall in 1998, under the supervision of Panula and Esa-Pekka Salonen. From 1995 to 1998, M�lkki was principal cellist in the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra. She left her Gothenburg position to devote herself to conducting[2]. From 2002?2005, she was the music director of the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra. Her debut with the Ensemble InterContemporain was in August 2004, in a program of Harrison Birtwistle at the Lucerne Festival. She became the EIC's Music Director in 2006, the first woman to hold the post, and served as the EIC's music director until 2013. In May 2013, she was appointed Principal Guest Conductor of the Gulbenkian Orchestra, with an initial contract of 3 years, effective July 2013. In September 2014, M�lkki was chosen as the next Chief Conductor of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, effective autumn 2016. 

March 13th, 1969 in Helsinki (Age 56)