Esa-Pekka Salonen |

Esa-Pekka Salonen

Conductor and composer Esa-Pekka Salonen was born in Helsinki and studied at the Academy. Jean Sibelius. In 1979 he made his debut as a conductor with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra. For ten years (1985-1995) he was Principal Conductor of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, and from 1995-1996 director of the Helsinki Festival. From 1992 to 2009 he led the Los Angeles Philharmonic and in April 2009 received the title of Laureate Conductor.

Since September 2008, Salonen has been Principal Conductor and Artistic Consultant of the Philharmonic Orchestra. In his first season in this position, he composed and directed the City of Dreams series of concerts dedicated to the music and culture of Vienna from 1900 to 1935. The cycle included concertos from works by Mahler, Schoenberg, Zemlinsky and Berg; it was designed for 9 months, and the concerts themselves were held in 18 European cities. In October 2009, as part of the City of Dreams program, Berg’s Wozzeck was staged, starring Simon Keenleyside. The concerts of the City of Dreams program were recorded by Signum, and the first disc from this series was Songs of Gurre, released in September 2009.

Esa-Pekka Salonen’s future projects with the Philharmonic Orchestra include a revival of Tristan und Isolde with video projections by Bill Viola, as well as a European tour with Bartók’s music in 2011.

Esa-Pekka Salonen has been collaborating with the Philharmonia for over 15 years. He made his debut with the band in September 1983 (at the age of 25), replacing the ill Michael Tilson Thomas at the last minute and performing Mahler’s Third Symphony. This concert has already become legendary. Mutual understanding immediately arose between the musicians of the orchestra and Esa-Pekka Salonen, and he was offered the post of chief guest conductor, which he held from 1985 to 1994, after which he led the orchestra on a permanent basis. Under the artistic direction of Salonen, the Philharmonic Orchestra has carried out a number of major projects, including the performance of Ligeti’s Clock and Clouds (1996) and Magnus Lindberg’s Native Rocks (2001-2002).

In the 2009-2010 season, Esa-Pekka Salonen will perform as guest conductor with the New York Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony, the Gustav Mahler Chamber Orchestra and the Bavarian Radio Symphony.

In August 2009, Salonen conducted the Vienna Philharmonic at the Salzburg Festival. He has also conducted a new production of Janáček’s House of the Dead at the Metropolitan Opera and La Scala (directed by Patrice Chereau).

During his tenure as Principal Conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Esa-Pekka Salonen performed at the Salzburg Festival, the Cologne Philharmonic and the Chatelet Theatre, and toured Europe and Japan. In April 2009, in connection with the 17th anniversary of his activity, the Los Angeles Philharmonic organized a series of concerts, which included the premiere of a violin concerto by Salonen himself.

Esa-Pekka Salonen is the winner of numerous awards. In 1993 the Academy of Music of Chigi presented him with the “Siena Prize” and he became the first conductor to receive this award, in 1995 he received the “Opera Prize” of the Royal Philharmonic Society, and in 1997 the “Prize for Conducting” of the same society . In 1998, the French government made him an Honorary Officer of Fine Arts and Letters. In May 2003 he received an honorary doctorate from the Sibelius Academy and in 2005 he was awarded the Helsinki Medal. In 2006, Salonen was named Musician of the Year by Musical America magazine, and in June 2009 he received an honorary doctorate from the Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts.

Esa-Pekka Salonen is renowned for his performances of contemporary music and has premiered countless new works. He led critically acclaimed festivals dedicated to the works of Berlioz, Ligeti, Schoenberg, Shostakovich, Stravinsky and Magnus Lindberg. In April 2006 Salonen returned to the Opéra de Paris to conduct the premiere of Kaia Saariaho’s new opera Adriana Mater, and in 2004 he conducted the premiere of her first opera Love from afar in Finland. In August 2007, Salonen conducted Saariaho’s Simone Passion directed by Peter Sellars at the Helsinki Festival (the first Finnish production) before performing at the Baltic Sea Festival in Stockholm.

Esa-Pekka Salonen is Artistic Director of the Baltic Sea Festival, which he co-founded in 2003. This festival is held every August in Stockholm and other cities of the Baltic region and invites the most famous orchestras, renowned conductors and soloists to participate. One of the goals of the festival is to unite the countries of the Baltic Sea and awaken responsibility for the preservation of the region’s ecology.

Esa-Pekka Salonen has an extensive discography. In September 2009, in collaboration with the record label Signum, he released Schoenberg’s Songs Gurre (Philharmonic Orchestra); in the near future, in collaboration with the same company, it is planned to record Berlioz’s Fantastic Symphony and Mahler’s Symphonies Six and Ninth.

On Deuthse Grammophon, Salonen has released a CD of his own works (Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra), a DVD of Kaja Saariho’s opera Love from afar (Finnish National Opera), and two CDs of works by Pärt and Schumann (together with Hélène Grimaud).

In November 2008, Deuthse Grammophon released a new CD with Salonen’s piano concerto and his works Helix and Dichotomy, which were nominated for a Grammy in November 2009.

October 2006 saw the release of the first recording by the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Salonen for Deuthse Grammophon (Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, the first disc recorded at Disney Hall); in December 2007, she was nominated for a Grammy. In addition, Esa-Pekka Salonen has worked with Sony Classical for many years. As a result of this collaboration, a large number of discs were released with works by a wide variety of composers from Mahler and Revueltas to Magnus Lindberg and Salonen himself. Most of the composer’s works can also be heard in the DG Concerts series on iTunes.