Before beginning his singing studies at the Sibelius Academy, young Finnish bass, Markus Suihkonen (b. 1993), studied the cello for 15 years. At the Sibelius Academy he studied under professors Petteri Salomaa and Jaakko Ryhänen and later with other teachers such as Gregory Lamar, Mika Kares and John Norris. Suihkonen has also attended master classes conducted by Matti Salminen, Helmut Deutsch, Rudolf Piernay, Margareet Honig, Anna Tomowa-Sintow and Soile Isokoski. He received his Bachelor of Music from the Sibelius Academy in 2017. In 2015, Markus Suihkonen won the Timo Mustakallio Singing Competition for young finnish singers and was awarded a scholarship from the Martti Talvela Foundation. Further, Suihkonen made his debut at the Finnish National Opera in the autumn 2015 in two minor roles in Shostakovich's The Nose. In 2016, among several opera projects, he sung the recitals at the Mariinsky Theater and at the Savonlinna Opera Festival. Furthermore, Suihkonen has performed with Finnish orchestras as a concert and an oratorio soloist as well in Sallinen's opera Kullervo at the Savonlinna Opera Festival in 2017. In the season 2017/18 Markus Suihkonen was part of the Young Ensemble at the Vlaamse Opera in Antwerp, Belgium. He sang the bass part in Mozart's Requiem as well as roles such as Daniel in Donizetti's 'Le duc d'Albe', Pistola in Verdi's 'Falstaff', and Publio in Mozart's 'La clemenza di Tito'. Suihkonen was a member of the Opera Studio of the 'Bayerische Staatsoper' in Munich for the seasons 2018/20. He performed there roles such as King René in Tchaikovsky's 'Iolanta', Angelotti in Puccini's 'Tosca' and Lesbo in Handel's 'Agrippinna'. In the spring 2019 he also guested as Publio at the Royal Opéra de Wallonie in Liège and in September 2020 he returned to the Bayerische Staatsoper as 2. Geharnischter in Mozart's 'Die Zauberflöte'. ​ From the season 2020/21 on Markus Suihkonen has been a member of the soloist ensember at the Staatsoper Hannover. There he has sung roles such as Lodovico in Verdi's 'Otello', Sparafucile in Verdi's 'Rigoletto' and Snug in Britten's 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'. In the season 2022/23 he has been seen on stage as Colline in Puccini's 'La Bohéme', Angelotti in Puccini's 'Tosca' and Carronte in Monteverdi's 'L'Orfeo'. In the summer 2023 Suihkonen returned to the Savonlinna Opera Festival to make his debut as Sarastro in Mozart's 'Die Zauberflöte'. ​ Suihkonen is also a regularly performing with different orchestras as a concert soloist. In 2019 he sang the roles of Böser Geist, Mephistophele and Pater Profundus in Schumann's 'Szenen aus Goethes Faust' with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra in the Helsinki Festival and returned to sing the role of 'Brander' in Berlioz's 'La damnation de Faust' with them in the spring 2020. He sang the role of Titurel in Wagner's 'Parsifal', which was performed as a concert version with the Danish National Symphony Orchestra in Copenhagen, Denmark. In the season 2022/23 he did his debut as a bass soloist in Verdi's 'Requiem' with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra in Ireland, Dublin and in Beethoven's '9th Symphony' with the Oulu Sinfonia in Oulu, Finland.