[10][11][12] Her work in contemporary music includes several world premieres and opera productions, such as conducting the Finnish premiere of Thomas Adès' Powder Her Face in 1999, which led to Adès inviting Mälkki to be his assistant for further performances of this opera at the Almeida Theatre in London, where, as she noted, "I ended up conducting some of the performances.

[19] In April 2016, the orchestra announced her appointment as its next principal guest conductor, effective with the 2017–2018 season, with an initial contract of 3 years.

In May 2013, Mälkki was appointed Principal Guest Conductor of the Gulbenkian Orchestra, with an initial contract of 3 years, effective July 2013.

[23] In September 2014, she was named the next chief conductor of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, effective autumn 2016,[24] with an initial contract of 3 years.

[27] Mälkki recorded two works of Stuart MacRae for the NMC label, Two Scenes from the Death of Count Ugolino and Motus.

[28] With the EIC, she has conducted recordings of music by Bruno Mantovani,[29] Luca Francesconi, Philippe Manoury, Michael Jarrell, Pierre Jodlowski, and Yann Robin, all for the Kairos label.