The Los Angeles Philharmonic announced on Tuesday that renowned conductor/composer Esa-Pekka Salonen will assume a new position as the organization’s Creative Director. This appointment comes three months after Salonen left his role as music director of the San Francisco Symphony.
The LA Phil’s board envisions the newly-instituted Judith & Thomas L. Beckmen Creative Director role as complementary to the music director position, which Gustavo Dudamel will vacate at the end of the 2025-2026 season to take the reins of the New York Philharmonic. The role is funded by a grant from Beckmen, former chair of the board.
Beginning in the 2026-2027 season, the creative director will “conduct and curate approximately six weeks of concerts with the LA Phil and focus on multidisciplinary projects, festivals, and the innovative programming for which the orchestra is renowned,” according to the orchestra’s official announcement. The ongoing search for a music director is not affected by the new position.
The LA Phil has also revealed a new partnership with the Philharmonie de Paris, which simultaneously appointed Salonen its Creativity and Innovation Chair as well as principal conductor of the storied Orchestre de Paris. The artistic collaboration between the LA Phil and the Philharmonie de Paris will include an international conducting fellowship and a series of ballet commissions, beginning with a new work by choreographer Benjamin Millepied to a score by Gabriella Smith. There will also be joint festivals and, according to the announcement, “a new project featuring immersive experiences that combine music, media and technology.”
In signing on with the LA Phil, Salonen iterated his admiration for the orchestra’s appetite for risk, approach to building audiences, and efforts to open up the repertoire. “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,” Salonen said. “Now, no place has been more central to my artistic life than the Los Angeles Philharmonic.”
As SF Classical Voice correspondent Janos Gereben has reported, Salonen’s services have been in demand since he left his position at SF Symphony last June. He has, of course, guest conducted regularly at the Los Angeles Philharmonic and will be on the podium at Walt Disney Concert Hall for three performance sets in the coming season, including a program of music by Alexander Scriabin, the world premiere of Smith’s violin concerto for Pekka Kuusisto, and performances of Ferruccio Busoni’s mammoth piano concerto with Igor Levit as soloist.
Speaking for the orchestra’s administration, President and CEO Kim Noltemy said, “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.”
SF Classical Voice awaits the first photos of Phil fans high-fiving each other.
