Esa-Pekka Salonen Named to New Artistic Leadership Positions:
Judith & Thomas L. Beckmen Creative Director, Los Angeles Philharmonic
Creativity and Innovation Chair, Philharmonie de Paris; and Principal Conductor, Orchestre de Paris
Esa-Pekka Salonen will join two of the world’s great performing arts institutions in new artistic positions: the Judith and Thomas L Beckmen Creative Director of the LA Phil, effective beginning in the 2026–27 season; and Creativity and Innovation Chair of the Philharmonie de Paris and Principal Conductor of the Orchestre de Paris, both effective beginning in the 2027–28 season. In these bespoke, five-year roles, Salonen will advise the LA Phil and Philharmonie de Paris on creative decisions including festival design, programs, commissions, residencies, and fellowships. He will also conduct and curate six weeks of concerts with the LA Phil and a minimum of eight weeks with the Orchestre de Paris per season, spearhead collaborative initiatives between the institutions, and compose new works. Salonen will also continue his acclaimed explorations of media and technology with both institutions, including a large-scale immersive project with the Orchestre de Paris and LA Phil.
Drawing on exceptional artistry and world-class facilities in the famously creative hubs of Paris and Los Angeles, these appointments will enable Salonen to realize his vision for 21st-century music: a collaborative art form that transcends traditional boundaries while honoring musical craftsmanship. Among the key collaborations he will oversee will be a series of shared commissions and productions, including new works pairing some of the world’s most compelling choreographers and composers beginning with Benjamin Millepied and Gabriella Smith; an international festival uniting Paris and Los Angeles in timely explorations of music and ideas; and the Salonen International Conducting Fellowship, an initiative that seeks to nurture a new generation of conductors informed by Salonen’s vision and values.
Of the new positions, Salonen said, “Over the course of my career, I am lucky to have found myself in many situations where the right parts have been in the right place to create genuine magic. More often than not, that place happened to be Los Angeles or Paris. We aspire to invent the musical worlds in which we want to live, and the LA Phil and Orchestre de Paris have done just that with Walt Disney Concert Hall and the Philharmonie de Paris. These are top-notch orchestras and the coolest halls, embedded within cities with the most curious and adventurous audiences. I am thrilled to be in positions where the behind-the-scenes creative work is just as important as waving the stick, and I cannot wait to start creating together.”
Salonen brings extraordinary credentials and deep personal connections to both institutions: he led the LA Phil as Music Director from 1992–2009, during which time he commissioned and premiered a record-breaking number of new works and acted as Frank Gehry’s partner in the construction of Walt Disney Concert Hall. In addition to this new position, he maintains his current title of Conductor Laureate at the LA Phil. His decades-long relationship with the Orchestre de Paris and Philharmonie de Paris has led to many acclaimed projects, including multidisciplinary collaborations with some of the greatest figures in opera and dance, and earned him the rank of Commandeur of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres—France’s highest cultural honor.
Esa-Pekka Salonen and Los Angeles
Josh S. Rose / LA Phil
“Esa-Pekka Salonen is a transformational artist whose vision helped shape the LA Phil into what it has become today,” stated Kim Noltemy, LA Phil President & Chief Executive Officer and David C. Bohnett Presidential Chair. “We are thrilled to have Esa-Pekka join the LA Phil in this historic new role, and we look forward to seeing how his innovative spirit will build on his highly celebrated legacy here and around the world. The addition of a Creative Director to our artistic team gives us an even greater ability to serve our audiences, bring unparalleled musical experiences to our iconic stages, and push the boundaries of what an orchestra can do.”
As Music Director from 1992 to 2009, Salonen worked together with Executive Director Ernest Fleischmann and, later, President and CEO Deborah Borda to transform the LA Phil into the most forward-thinking and well-attended American orchestra. During this time, Salonen’s compositional practice also took a significant turn. Feeding off of the spirit of creativity and freedom he found at the LA Phil and felt in Los Angeles, and California as a whole, Salonen shed the remaining trappings of his 20th-century Modernist musical upbringing toward a more intuitive style, yielding compositions such as Wing on Wing, commissioned for the opening season of Walt Disney Concert Hall. Further LA Phil commissions include his recent Sinfonia concertante for organ and orchestra; Fog, dedicated to Frank Gehry; Gemini, a pairing of two diametrically opposed yet inseparable works for orchestra; and Tiu, which premiered in 2024 to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Walt Disney Concert Hall’s opening.
Salonen has maintained a close relationship with the orchestra since his time as Music Director, leading several programs every season as Conductor Laureate—a title he will continue to hold. His many acclaimed projects with the LA Phil over the years include a presentation of Edgard Varèse’s Amériques, the LA Phil’s first collaboration with multimedia artist Refik Anadol; staged productions of Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde and Stravinsky’s Persephone and Orpheus, directed by Peter Sellars; and Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht’s The Seven Deadly Sins, directed by Simon McBurney, all conducted by Salonen. He has also conducted a collaborations with Sigur Rós to conclude the 2017 Reykjavík Festival and Boulez’s Rituel with new choreography by Benjamin Millepied.
He returns to the LA Phil for two programs this season, including Scriabin with Jean-Yves Thibaudet and Busoni with Igor Levit. As Music Director of the 2026 Ojai Music Festival, he will also feature the LA Phil New Music Group in a specially-curated program.
“The first time I ever came to the U.S. was to conduct the LA Phil,” said Salonen. “Coming from Finland, where we tend toward understatement, the LA Phil’s bold vision for what an orchestra could mean to a city and to the world was surreal – a Californian optimism with which I was not familiar. But we understood that an orchestra isn’t just about maintaining tradition – it’s about pushing boundaries, taking risks. Now, no place has been more central to my artistic life than the Los Angeles Philharmonic. It’s an honor and a privilege to continue to work with the musicians and the organization in this new capacity.”
Esa-Pekka Salonen and Paris
Audoin Desforges / Philharmonie de Paris
Olivier Mantei, Director General of Cité de la musique – Philharmonie de Paris, said of the new partnerships, “We are thrilled and honored to welcome to the helm of the Orchestre de Paris an exceptional musician with whom we have long shared a deep connection and whose imagination and vision have left a lasting mark on the orchestras he has conducted around the world. Esa-Pekka Salonen is an artist deeply engaged with today’s world, and we also look forward to working with him on the artistic and societal challenges of the present and the future through the dedicated chair created especially for him at the Philharmonie de Paris.”
Over nearly 40 years, Salonen and the Orchestre de Paris have cultivated an extensive musical and artistic relationship. He recently led the Orchestre de Paris in a performance of Pierre Boulez’s Rituel in memoriam Bruno Maderna, featuring choreography by Benjamin Millepied and his LA Dance Project and presented in honor of the composer’s centennial in a co-commission with the LA Phil and New York Philharmonic. In 2024, he led the Ensemble Intercontemporain in a “carte blanche” program co-presented by the Orchestre de Paris, featuring works by his colleagues Kaija Saariaho and Magnus Lindberg, while in 2023 he presented an experimental new model for orchestral touring and exchange with an extensive Philharmonie de Paris residency with the San Francisco Symphony. Other projects include Patrice Chéreau’s 2013 Aix-en-Provence production of Elektra—his final before his death; an installation of Salonen’s immersive digital project The Virtual Orchestra; and a major staged production of Mahler’s Symphony No. 2, “Resurrection,” directed by Romeo Castellucci and featuring the Choeur de l’Orchestre de Paris during the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence. Salonen conducted a revival of the latter production at the Grande Halle de La Villette in Paris, the Orchestre de Paris’s inaugural program at the venue.
As a longtime friend of Pierre Boulez, for whom the Philharmonie de Paris’s main hall is named, Salonen shares in his late colleague’s energetic aspirations for the future of music. His service to French music and culture has been recognized by the French government on numerous occasions.
Salonen and the Orchestre de Paris are currently touring several major European festivals with a program centered on his new Horn Concerto, featuring soloist Stefan Dohr, including its world premiere at the Lucerne Festival last weekend. He returns to the Philharmonie de Paris for four weeks of programming with the Orchestre de Paris this season, including concerts with Yuja Wang, Stefan Dohr, and Renaud Capuçon, featuring repertoire ranging from Wagner and Prokofiev to Bruckner and Sibelius. He also collaborates with the Choeur de l’Orchestre de Paris on a performance of Ligeti’s Requiem.
“I have worked with the Orchestre de Paris and Philharmonie de Paris, in one form or another, for nearly forty years,” said Salonen. “In that time, there was one major constant: any idea, no matter how ambitious, found a home in Paris. The Philharmonie de Paris and the Orchestre de Paris have been consistently inspiring musical partners and key facilitators of my most cherished collaborations. I look forward to returning the favor.”
Culture, City, and Space: the Philharmonie de Paris and Walt Disney Concert Hall
The Orchestre de Paris and LA Phil share a future-focused artistic vision, performing in iconic homes—the Philharmonie de Paris and Walt Disney Concert Hall—that have transformed areas of their respective cities into globally recognized cultural destinations. Both organizations have cultivated audiences aligned with Salonen’s values: innovation, collaboration, and creative curiosity.
Paris has been central to classical music’s evolution from medieval polyphony through French impressionists like Debussy and Ravel to modernist visionaries Messiaen and Boulez. Los Angeles, though newer to classical history, proved equally revolutionary through émigré composers like Schoenberg and Stravinsky, while developing distinctive American voices in film music and minimalism. Today it stands as a crossroads of diverse musical traditions from East Asia, Latin America, and beyond.
Both cities’ status as historic centers of musical creativity is matched by their flagship musical institutions, both internationally renowned as future-facing standard-bearers of classical music innovation. This philosophy is reflected not only in their programming and commissioning, but in their home concert halls, known the world over as some of the most exciting venues to hear classical music.
The Philharmonie de Paris comprises two buildings: the Philharmonie and the Cité de la Musique. Centered on the fully-modular Grande Salle Pierre Boulez, the Jean Nouvel-designed La Philharmonie boasts innovative acoustic engineering with floating balconies and a publicly accessible rooftop belvedere, while Christian de Portzamparc’s Cité de la Musique encompasses a performance space, museum, and media library. Located in the Parc de la Villette, the Philharmonie joins other cultural institutions as the anchor of a new arts district in northeast Paris. From this truly interdisciplinary creative base, Salonen will be able to interface with Paris’s rich artistic community across all media, all with a permanent resident orchestra on hand.
Opened during Salonen’s tenure as Music Director and constructed with his close involvement, Walt Disney Concert Hall was designed by Frank Gehry to reflect the unique energy and creative spirit of Los Angeles. The hall’s street-level entrance, instantly-recognizable façade, and public outdoor spaces catalyzed the artistic and social revitalization of downtown Los Angeles. In addition to the main hall, Walt Disney Concert Hall includes various multipurpose spaces such as BP Hall, The Ralph M. Parsons Foundation Atrium Hall, and REDCAT, while the LA Phil also manages and presents programming at the Beckmen YOLA Center, Hollywood Bowl, and The Ford.
Read the Articles in the LA Times, Le Figaro and New York Times
Esa-Pekka Salonen
Esa-Pekka Salonen is renowned as both a composer and conductor. He recently concluded his position as Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony (2020–2025) and currently serves as Conductor Laureate of the Philharmonia Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra. He directs the pre-professional Negaunee Conducting Program at the Colburn School and co-founded the Baltic Sea Festival, serving as its Artistic Director from 2003 to 2018.
Recent highlights include conducting the 2023 Nobel Prize Concert, winning the 2024 Polar Music Prize, and residencies as both a composer and conductor with the Berlin Philharmonic and Elbphilharmonie Hamburg. This past spring, he led the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra in a Salzburg Easter Festival residency centered on a new Simon McBurney-led production of Mussorgsky’s Khovanshchina, appearing in a Gerard McBurney-arranged fusion of Shostakovich and Stravinsky/Ravel’s orchestrations featuring never-before-heard music from a recently-discovered manuscript.
Salonen’s major compositions include concertos for piano (Yefim Bronfman), violin (Leila Josefowicz), and cello (Yo-Yo Ma), all appearing on recordings he conducted himself; Karawane, a work for chorus and orchestra based on a Dadaist poem by Hugo Ball; and his 2023 Sinfonia concertante for organ and orchestra. His Horn Concerto, premiered last weekend with Stefan Dohr at the Lucerne Festival, will have further performances in Boston, Milan, Paris, and Hong Kong.
Known for his enthusiasm for cutting-edge technology, Salonen has helmed digital projects ranging from multimedia works to virtual reality installations and AI collaborations. Notable projects include the traveling installations RE-RITE and Universe of Sound with the Philharmonia Orchestra, the award-winning audience-responsive AI opera installation Laila, and various digital productions with the San Francisco Symphony featuring visual artists and his Collaborative Partners.
Header image: Audoin Desforges / Philharmonie de Paris