Conductor and composer Esa-Pekka Salonen.
In Tuesday’s (8/13) New York Times, Joshua Barone writes, “Media personality Cilla Benkö asked Esa-Pekka Salonen, ‘So what’s going on in your head at the moment?’ ‘Well, I’m at a crossroads,’ said Salonen, the composer and conductor, who is a year away from becoming a free agent for the first time in decades. ‘I’m kind of figuring out what to do, if anything.’ Salonen is in a good position to choose what comes next. He is a conductor at the top of his field, and the kind of composer who can bring on not just one high-profile commissioner but several for each new piece he writes…. When he leaves his post as music director of the San Francisco Symphony next year, after a … public break with the orchestra’s board, he could do pretty much whatever he wants. ‘I’m not rushing into anything,’ Salonen said … ‘I just want to get my priorities right.’ ” Salonen was previously music director of the Philharmonia Orchestra in London and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. “Within five minutes of the announcement that he was leaving San Francisco, Salonen had the first of many job offers. At the moment, he’s not interested in taking on another orchestra, but there are many other ways to remain active.”
