Esa-Pekka Salonen

Esa-Pekka Salonen’s restless innovation drives him constantly to reposition classical music in the 21st century. He is currently the Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor for London’s Philharmonia Orchestra and the Conductor Laureate for the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Additionally, Salonen is Artistic Director and cofounder of the annual Baltic Sea Festival, which invites celebrated artists to promote unity and ecological awareness among the countries around the Baltic Sea. He is an advisor to the Sync Project, a global initiative to harness the power of music for human health. 
 Salonen’s works move freely between contemporary idioms, combining intricacy and technical virtuosity with playful rhythmic and melodic innovations. He has written many orchestral, chamber, and choral works, in addition to concertos for cellist Yo-Yo Ma, pianist Yefim Bronfman, and violinist Leila Josefowicz. The Violin Concerto won the prestigious Grawemeyer Award and was featured in a 2014 international Apple ad campaign for iPad. 
 Salonen and the Philharmonia Orchestra have experimented in groundbreaking ways to present music, with the first major virtual-reality production from a UK symphony orchestra; the award-winning “Universe of Sound” installations, which have allowed people all over the world to step inside the orchestra, and the much-hailed app for iPad, “The Orchestra: Music From The App.”