Esa-Pekka Salonen

Esa-Pekka Salonen (born June 30, 1958, Helsinki, Finland) is a Finnish composer and conductor who was the music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic (1992–2009) and later of the San Francisco Symphony (2020– ). He also served as principal conductor and artistic adviser of the Philharmonia Orchestra (2008–21) in London.

Salonen studied French horn, conducting, and composition at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki (1973–77) and composition with private teachers in Italy (1979–81). In 1979 he made his conducting debut with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra. He burst onto the international scene in 1983 with his performance of Gustav Mahler’s Third Symphony with the Philharmonia in London. In 1986 an American Grammy Award and a British Gramophone magazine award went to Salonen and the Los Angeles Philharmonic for their recording of Witold Lutosławski’s Symphony No. 3.

Salonen’s dynamic and theatrical approach proved a perfect match for the Los Angeles musicians, and he led the orchestra through 17 years. Particularly rejuvenating was the move in 2003 to the spectacular new Frank Gehry-designed Walt Disney Concert Hall. During his time as director, Salonen and the orchestra premiered John Adams’s Naïve and Sentimental Music (1999) as well as several of Salonen’s own compositions, including LA Variations (1997), 1001 Nights (1998), and Wing on Wing (2004).

Like other international star conductors, Salonen worked with many of the world’s most highly regarded orchestras. He was also active in the international music festival circuit, and he cofounded the annual Baltic Sea Festival, serving as artistic director until 2018. In addition, Salonen made numerous recordings for the German label Deutsche Grammophon. His programming emphasized contemporary music, though he did not ignore the classical repertoire; in 2006 he completed a cycle of Ludwig van Beethoven’s symphonies. Among the composers he featured were those from the Baltic region, including Estonian Arvo Pärt and Finns Jean Sibelius, Kaija Saariaho, and Magnus Lindberg. Salonen recorded much of Austrian composer György Ligeti’s work, collaborating with the composer until Ligeti’s death in 2006. Of particular interest were Salonen’s collaborations with American stage director Peter Sellars on such productions as The Tristan Project (2004), a multimedia concert presentation of Richard Wagner’s opera Tristan und Isolde; one act was played on each of three successive evenings, and all were accompanied by a video by Bill Viola.

With the Philharmonia Orchestra, Salonen created the RE-RITE (2009) and Universe of Sound (2012) installations, both of which debuted in London. Through audio and video projections, the interactive exhibits allowed the public to conduct, play an instrument, and step inside the Philharmonia Orchestra with Salonen conducting Igor Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring and Gustav Holst’s The Planets, respectively. Salonen was also instrumental in developing The Orchestra (2012), an iPad app that allowed users to learn about performing notable symphonic works. Meanwhile, Salonen continued to debut his own compositions, including Violin Concerto (2009); Nyx (2011); Karawane (2014); Cello Concerto (2016), for Yo-Yo Ma; and Fog (2019), a 90th-birthday tribute to Gehry.

In 2020 Salonen succeeded Michael Tilson Thomas as music director of the San Francisco Symphony, and in 2021 he ended his tenure at the Philharmonia, becoming conductor laureate. He was appointed (2020) an Honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE).