Overview
Sponsored by Donna L. Kendall Foundation
Additional support from the Segerstrom Foundation
San Francisco Symphony
Esa-Pekka Salonen, conductor
Lisa Batiashvili, violin
SIBELIUS: Finlandia
SIBELIUS: Violin Concerto in D minor, Op. 47
SIBELIUS: Symphony No. 1
Led by Grammy Award-winning music director Esa-Pekka Salonen, the San Francisco Sympony performs an all Sibelius program, including his most famous tone poem, Finlandia. Award-winning violinist Lisa Batiashvili joins the Symphony to perform Sibelius' Violin Concerto.
Esa-Pekka Salonen is known as both a composer and conductor. He is currently the Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony, where he works alongside eight Collaborative Partners from a variety of disciplines, ranging from composers to roboticists. He is the Conductor Laureate for the Philharmonia Orchestra, where he was Principal Conductor & Artistic Advisor from 2008 until 2021, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, where he was Music Director from 1992 until 2009, and the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra. He is currently in the midst of Multiverse Esa-Pekka Salonen, a two-season residency as both composer and conductor, at Elbphilharmonie Hamburg. As a member of the faculty of LA's Colburn School, he develops, leads, and directs the pre-professional Negaunee Conducting Program. Salonen co-founded— and from 2003 until 2018 served as the Artistic Director for—the annual Baltic Sea Festival, which invites celebrated artists to promote unity and ecological awareness among the countries around the Baltic Sea.
