Trained as a cellist, M‹lkki played chamber music and solo recitals and served as the principal cellist of the G‹teborg Symphony Orchestra in the 1990s. She launched her conducting career in 1998 after studying at the Sibelius Academy and the ConductorsÔä Workshop in New York. Since 2002, she has overseen Romantic and 20th-century music at the Stavenger Symphony, sharing the leadership of the orchestra with Philippe Herreweghe, artistic director of early music. She will leave that post at the end of this year, and completes a term as principal guest conductor of Finland's Oulu Symphony Orchestra this summer.

The Ensemble Intercontemporain was founded by conductor and composer Pierre Boulez in 1976.