Esa-Pekka Salonen

Esa-Pekka Salonen is renowned as both a composer and conductor. He is the Creative Director of the LA Phil, and will assume the titles of Creativity and Innovation Chair of the Philharmonie de Paris and Principal Conductor of the Orchestre de Paris in 2027–28. Salonen is the Conductor Laureate of the Philharmonia Orchestra, LA Phil, and the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, and formerly served as Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony. He is the founder and director of the Colburn School’s Negaunee Conducting Program, which he directs as a member of the faculty. Salonen co-founded, and until 2018 served as the Artistic Director of, the annual Baltic Sea Festival.

In his first season as Creative Director of the LA Phil, Salonen will lead four weeks of programming and a season-long festival, Rituals; premiere new projects with Yuval Sharon and Reifik Anadol; and present the United States premiere of his critically-acclaimed collaboration with Peter Sellars, One Morning Turns Into An Eternity. This position builds on his 1992–2009 tenure as Music Director, during which he spearheaded the opening of Walt Disney Concert Hall, commissioned and premiered dozens of new works, and oversaw the institution’s transformation into one of the top orchestras in the United States.

Other conducting highlights include a series of season-opening dates with the Vienna Philharmonic; two weeks of programming with the Orchestre de Paris in anticipation of his two Paris titles; a tour with the Philharmonia Orchestra; and concerts with the Philadelphia and Cleveland orchestras, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and the New York Philharmonic.

Following last season’s premieres of his Horn Concerto and a new work for violin and cello, Drømmelogikk, Salonen conducts his own Tiu and Nyx. His Helix, Cello Concerto, and kínēma will be performed by ensembles around the world this season. Salonen has received several notes of acclaim for his work as a composer: he was awarded the Nemmers Prize for Composition in 2014, his Violin Concerto won the Grawemeyer Prize in 2012,he received the Royal Philharmonic Society's Conductor's Prize in 1997, following its Opera Prize in 1995,was awarded the Siena Prize by the Accademia Chigiana in 1993, and the UNESCO Rostrum Prize in 1992 for his work Floof.

In recent seasons, Salonen co-founded the statewide California Festival with Gustavo Dudamel and Rafael Payare. He also co-created a synesthetic production of Scriabin’s Prometheus: the Poem of Fire with pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet and Cartier’s head perfumer Mathilde Laurent; the project was the subject of a documentary produced by Cartier in partnership with Mezzo TV. Salonen led the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra in a Salzburg Easter Festival residency featuring a Simon McBurney production of Modest Mussorgsky’s unfinished opera Khovanshchina, with never-before heard music compiled by Gerard McBurney from a recently rediscovered manuscript. 

Esa-Pekka Salonen has curated music festivals for many of the world's leading orchestras. He was appointed Composer-in-Residence at the Berlin Philharmonic in 2022, having previously served as Marie-Josée Kravis Composer-in-Residence at the New York Philharmonic in 2015. This past season, he served as Composer-in-Residence at the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, with five of his compositions programmed during the orchestra’s season. Last season, he was the director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s Festival of Contemporary Music at Tanglewood and the music director of the the Ojai Music Festival; the latter commemorated the festival's 80th anniversary and his return to the role following previous directorships in 1999 and 2001. Salonen’s compositions were featured at the Total Immersion series at the Barbican Centre in 2018, the Festival Présences Paris in 2011, the Stockholm International Composer Festival in 2004, and Musica Nova Helsinki in 2003.

Esa-Pekka Salonen also enjoys an extensive recording career, both as conductor and composer. Recent releases include the GRAMMY® Award-winning (Best Opera Recording) world premiere recording of Kaija Saariaho’s Adriana Mater on Deutsche Grammophon, a GRAMMY® nominated recording of Stravinsky’s Symphony in Three Movements, and a Pentatone release of Bartók’s three piano concertos with Pierre-Laurent Aimard. His concertos for piano (composed for Yefim Bronfman), violin (for Leila Josefowicz, featured in an ad campaign for the Apple iPad), and cello (for Yo-Yo Ma) all appear on recordings conducted by Salonen himself.

Salonen was educated at Helsinki’s Sibelius Academy, where he founded the new music appreciation group Korvat Auki and ensemble Toimii with classmates Magnus Lindberg and Kaija Saariaho. He is the recipient of numerous awards and honors including Sweden’s Litteris et Artibus medal; the Pro Finlandia Medal of the Order of the Lion of Finland, the Helsinki Medal, and Commander, First Class of the Order of the Lion of Finland; Poland’s Gloria Artis Medal for Merit to Culture; and the Rank of Commandeur of France’s Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. He was elected an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2010 and appointed an honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) by Queen Elizabeth II in 2020. In 2023, he led the Nobel Prize Concert, and in 2024 received the Polar Music Prize. To date, he has received seven honorary doctorates in four different countries.

August 2026