Esa-Pekka Salonen

Conductor and Composer

© Andrew Eccles

Esa-Pekka Salonen has made an outstanding name for himself both as a conductor and as a composer. He is the music director of the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra and Conductor Laureate of the Philharmonia Orchestra in London, the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra and the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra.

In the 2024/25 season he has given the world premieres of works by Nico Muhly, Xavier Muzik and Gabriella Smith with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. He has conducted the Philharmonia Orchestra in concerts both in London and on tour to Italy, the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra in performances of Bryce Dessner’s Violin Concerto with Pekka Kuusisto and Boulez’s Notations with Pierre-Laurent Aimard, and the Orchestre de Paris in Romeo Castellucci’s staging of Mahler’s Second Symphony and in Benjamin Millepied’s dance piece Rituel, celebrating the 100th birthday of Boulez. He also conducted Musorgsky’s Khovanshchina at the Salzburg Easter Festival. In addition, he has conducted several performances of his own compositions, including the works Tiu and kínēma and his Cello Concerto with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, his Cello Concerto with the Cleveland Orchestra and the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra and his Sinfonia concertante for organ and orchestra with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. In total, his compositions have been performed by 13 different orchestras.

With the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra he has recorded Bartók’s piano concertos with Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Ligeti’s Clocks and Clouds, Lux Aeterna and Ramifications and Saariaho’s Adriana Mater. His wide-ranging discography also includes Strauss’s Vier letzte Lieder and Bartók’s The Miraculous Mandarian and Dance Suite with the Philharmonia Orchestra, Stravinsky’s Perséphone with Andrew Staples, Pauline Cheviller and the Orchestra of Finnish National Opera and a CD box set of his complete recordings for Sony Classical. Recordings of his own works have been released by the labels Sony and Deutsche Grammophon.

Esa-Pekka Salonen has received numerous prizes and awards, among them the International Prize of the Accademia Musicale Chigiana, the Opera Award and Conductor Award of the Royal Philharmonic Society, the medal Litteris et Artibus (one of the highest awards in Sweden), and the Pro Finlandia Medal of the Order of the Lion of Finland, of which he was also appointed Commander, First Class. In 2020 he was made a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire by the late Queen Elizabeth II. In 2024 he received the Polar Music Prize and was awarded the title Commandeur de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture. He has also received seven honorary doctorates from four countries.

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Current as of July 2025

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Esa-Pekka Salonen conductor
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Esa-Pekka Salonen conductor
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Esa-Pekka Salonen conductor
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Esa-Pekka Salonen conductor
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Esa-Pekka Salonen Conductor
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