Mikko Franck began to play the violin at the age of five and entered Helsinki's Sibelius Academy in 1992, subsequently studying in New York, Israel and Sweden.

In 2007, Mikko Franck assumed the post of General Music Director of the Finnish National Opera. Between 2002 and 2007, he was Music Director and Chief Conductor of the Orchestre National de Belgique. In recent seasons, Mikko Franck has worked with orchestras such as the Berlin Philharmonic, Munich Philharmonic, Bamberg Symphony, Finnish Radio Symphony, New York Philharmonic, San Francisco, Chicago, Tokyo and London Symphonies, Philharmonia, Israel Philharmonic, the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and Mahler Chamber Orchestra. He has toured Japan with both the Bamberger Symphoniker and the Orchestre National de Belgique, and in May 2002 was Artistic Director of a Rautavaara Festival with the Helsinki Philharmonic.

At the Finnish National Opera, productions Mikko Franck has conducted have included Parsifal, The Magic Flute, L'Elisir d'Amore, Don Giovanni, La Bohème, Puccini's Manon Lescaut, Mussorgsky's Khovanschina and, in Autumn 2003, the world première of Einojuhani Rautavaara's opera Rasputin (recorded on Ondine, ODV 4003).

Mikko Franck's recording of Sibelius's En Saga and Lemminkainen Legends with the Swedish Radio Symphony (ODE 953-2) received outstanding reviews throughout the international press; the album won the Diapason d'Or Award and was also nominated for a Grammy Award (Best Orchestral Performance) in 2001. Other albums include Tchaikovsky's Sixth Symphony "Pathéthique" (2003; ODE 1002-2) and Rautavaara's opera House of the Sun (2003; ODE 1032-2D). Among Mikko Franck's latest releases is an album of works by Rautavaara with the Orchestre National de Belgique (ODE 1064-5).

Franck became music director of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France in September 2015.