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 of 2015 in two minor roles in Shostakovich's The Nose. In 2016, among several opera projects, he sang recitals at the Mariinsky Theater and at the Savonlinna Opera Festival. Furthermore, Suihkonen has performed with Finnish orchestras as a concert and oratorio soloist, as well as 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 two seasons from 2018 until 2020. There he performed roles such as King René in Tchaikovsky's 'Iolanta', Angelotti in Puccini's 'Tosca' and Lesbo in Handel's 'Agrippina'. In the spring of 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'. ​ Markus Suihkonen was a member of the soloist ensemble at the Staatsoper Hannover from 2020 until 2025. There he sang roles such as Ramfis in Verdi’s 'Aida', Sarastro in Mozart's 'Die Zauberflöte’, Colline in Puccini's 'La Bohéme', Sparafucile in Verdi's 'Rigoletto', Lodovico in Verdi's 'Otello' and Krishna/Parsi Rustomji in Glass' 'Satyagraha'. In the summer of 2023, Suihkonen returned to the Savonlinna Opera Festival to make his debut as Sarastro in Mozart's 'Die Zauberflöte’. He made his debut at the Semperoper Dresden as Caronte in Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo in 2024. In the summer of 2025, Suihkonen performed at the Bayreuther Festspiele as the 4. Edler in Wagner's Lohengrin and as Landgraf in the children's production Tannhäuser. In the autumn of 2025, Markus Suihkonen made his house debut in Glyndebourne, where he was seen as Colline in Puccini's La Boheme. ​ Suihkonen is also a regular performer 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 of 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 made 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.