Esa-Pekka Salonen

Esa-Pekka Salonen, a Finnish-born composer and conductor, is Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony. He is Conductor Laureate of the Philharmonia Orchestra, of which he was Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor from 2008 to 2021, of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, of which he was Music Director from 1992 to 2009, and of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra. A visionary in terms of the future of classical music and its audiences, he brings together eight personalities with diverse backgrounds in the San Francisco Symphony and leads a series of cross-disciplinary collaborations that open up new horizons. Recent recordings include R. Strauss' Four Last Lieder with Lise Davidsen and the Philharmonia Orchestra, Bartók's The Wonderful Mandarin and Dance Suite with the same orchestra, Stravinsky's Persephone with Andrew Staples, Pauline Cheviller and the Finnish National Opera. He received the following prizes: the UNESCO Rostrum Prize for his work Floofen in 1992, the Siena Prize in 1993, awarded by the Accademia Chigiana, the Royal Philharmonic Society Opera Prize in 1995 and, two years later, his Conductor's Prize. His Concerto for violin won the Grawemeyer Prize in 2012, and in 2014 he was awarded the Nemmers Prize for Composition. To date, he has been awarded seven honorary doctorates in four different countries.