One of a generation of gifted conductors produced by Finland’s highly developed music education system, Esa-Pekka Salonen is noted for musical interpretations of exceptional dynamism and clarity, underpinned by an extraordinarily accurate ear for sonority and technical detail. Born in Helsinki in 1958, Salonen at first took interest primarily in composing, and he began to conduct in order to direct performances of his own music; while a student at Helsinki’s Sibelius Academy, he cofounded the performing groups Korvat auki (Ears Open) and Toimii (It Works) with the Finnish composer Magnus Lindberg. In 1983 he was asked by London’s Philharmonia Orchestra to replace an unwell conductor at very short notice for a performance of Mahler’s huge-scale Symphony No. 3, a spectacular success that launched Salonen’s international conducting career. As the Philharmonia’s principal guest conductor (1985-94) and then music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic (1992-2009), Salonen explored a wide concert repertory with a strong focus on 20th-century composers, and during his tenure the LAPO commissioned and performed over 50 new works. His more recent composing style filters his earlier modernism (as in Floof for soprano and chamber group, 1982) through an idiom of sumptuous sonic appeal and orchestral virtuosity; major statements have included the orchestral L.A. Variations (1996) and a concerto each for piano (2007), violin (2009), and cello (2017). From 2008 Salonen was principal conductor of the Philharmonia Orchestra for 13 years, and in 2020 he became music director of the San Francisco Symphony.