Violinist Pekka Kuusisto performs Sibelius

Esa-Pekka Salonen conducts a program of Sibelius with violinist, conductor and composer Pekka Kuusisto.

Esa-Pekka Salonen, conductor
Pekka Kuusisto, violin

Gabriella SMITH Tumblebird Contrails
SIBELIUS Violin Concerto
SIBELIUS Symphony No. 5

Get tickets »

Violinist, conductor, and composer Pekka Kuusisto is renowned for his artistic freedom and fresh approach to repertoire. Kuusisto is Artistic Director of Norwegian Chamber Orchestra, Principal Guest Conductor & Artistic Co-Director of Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra and Principal Guest Conductor of the Gothenburg Symphony from season 2025/26. He is also Artistic Best Friend of Die Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen.

In season 2024/25 Kuusisto appears with Helsinki Philharmonic and Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra as soloist and conductor, play-conducts Norwegian Chamber Orchestra, Die Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, Swedish Chamber Orchestra, Danish National Symphony Orchestra, and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra during his two-week residency in March 2025.

He conducts the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Lahti Sinfonia and Ostrobothninan Symphony as well as appears as soloist with Detroit Symphony Orchestra with Tabita Berglund, the NSO Dublin, Brussels Philharmonic and Orchestre National de Lyon with André de Ridder, the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic and Boston Symphony Orchestra with Esa-Pekka Salonen as well as with Deutsche Symphonie-Orchester Berlin and Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra. Kuusisto continues his collaboration with Gabriel Kahane as Council following successful tours in the US and Australia.

Esa-Pekka Salonen is renowned as both a composer and conductor. He is the music director of the San Francisco Symphony and conductor laureate of the Philharmonia Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra. As a member of the faculty of the Colburn School, he directs the pre-professional Negaunee Conducting Program. Salonen co-founded and, until 2018, served as the artistic director of the annual Baltic Sea Festival.

In the 2024-25 season, Salonen led the San Francisco Symphony in world premieres of works by Nico Muhly, Xavier Muzik, and Gabriella Smith, among other programs. He also returned to the Philharmonia Orchestra — both in London and on tour in Italy — and to the Los Angeles Philharmonic, where he conducted a wide range of programs, including Bryce Dessner’s Violin Concerto with Pekka Kuusisto and Boulez’s Notations with Pierre-Laurent Aimard.

Salonen’s compositions were performed by 13 different orchestras in the 2024-25 season. He conducted his own pieces Tiu, kínēma, and Cello Concerto with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra; he also conducted the Cello Concerto with the Cleveland Orchestra and the San Francisco Symphony.

With the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, he led his Sinfonia concertante for organ and orchestra. His works, conducted by others, also appeared in programs by the Montreal and Aarhus symphony orchestras (Sinfonia concertante), Munich Philharmonic (Insomnia), Lahti Symphony Orchestra (kínēma), Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and Magdeburg Philharmonic Orchestra (Gemini), Slaithwaite Philharmonic Orchestra (Nyx), Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra (Cello Concerto), and Ensemble intercontemporain (Meeting).