Artists

• Susanna Mälkki

  Conductor

  Susanna Mälkki is sought-after by symphony orchestras and in opera houses at the highest level worldwide. She appears regularly with top orchestras throughout Europe and North America, including the Helsinki Philharmonic (where she is chief conductor emeritus and served as chief conductor from 2016 until 2023), the Los Angeles Philharmonic (where she was principal guest conductor from 2017 until 2022), The Philadelphia Orchestra, The Cleveland Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic, Vienna Symphony, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, and Berlin Philharmonic. At the invitation of Pierre Boulez, Mälkki served as music director of the Ensemble intercontemporain from 2006 to 2013.

  Equally in demand with major opera houses, her past notable engagements have included the Opéra national de Paris, Milan’s Teatro alla Scala, Vienna Staatsoper, The Metropolitan Opera, Barcelona’s Gran Teatre del Liceu, and London’s Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Operatic titles this season and beyond show Mälkki’s versatility in the art form; they include Janáček’s The Makropulos Case, Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande, Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress, Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro, Beethoven’s Fidelio, Faure’s Penelope, and Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde.

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

  Learn more about Susanna Mälkki

• Claire Chase

  Flute

  Claire Chase is a musician, interdisciplinary artist, and educator. Passionately dedicated to the creation of new ecosystems for the music of our time, Chase has given the world premieres of hundreds of new works by a new generation of artists. She was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 2012, and in 2017 was awarded the Avery Fisher Prize from Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. She is the Debs Creative Chair at Carnegie Hall for the 2022–23 season, where she is curating concerts, organizing interactive educational events, and presenting multiple new commissions. 

  
  Learn more about Claire Chase

• esperanza spalding

  Bass

  esperanza spalding (also known as irma nejando, or, i.e.) is a being who has grown to recognize love in the abstract and aspirational, and is now fully dedicated to learning how she can serve and embody actualized love through honor for and receptivity to fellow humans, teachers, and practitioners of various regenerative arts. Bass, piano, composition, performance, voice, and lyrics are tools and disciplines she is engaged in deeply to cultivate her own channel for transmitting care and beauty through vibration / sound / presence. She has written an opera with Wayne Shorter, which was premiered in the fall of 2021. She is currently developing a mockumentary in collaboration with brontë velez and the San Francisco Symphony; researching liberation technologies in jazz and black dance; and continuing a lifelong collaboration with practitioners in various fields relating to music, healing, and cognition to develop music with enhanced therapeutic potential. esperanza spalding is presently engaged by Harvard University to co-create and learn with students enrolled there, working on developing creative practices that serve the restoration of people and land.