Born in Helsinki, Esa-Pekka Salonen studied at the Sibelius Academy, making his debut as Conductor with the Finnish Radio Orchestra in 1979. In 1985 he was appointed principal Conductor of the Swedish Radio Orchestra, where he remained for ten years, was Conductor of the Helsinki Festival in 1995 and 1996, and Conductor music of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra from 1992 to 2009. His other engagements include permanent collaborations with the Salzburg Festival, the Philharmonie in Cologne and the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, as well as numerous European tours and concerts in Japan. Since 2008, he has been Conductor principal and Conductor artistic director of the Philharmonia Orchestra, with which he initiated the City of Dreams project, which over a period of nine months explored Viennese music and culture between 1900 and 1935, presenting music by Mahler, Schönberg, Zemlinsky and Berg in their historical and social context, travelling through 18 cities in Europe. The project also includes a series of recordings, of which the one with the Gurrelieder is already available. Other events in the 2009/2010 season were the UK premiere of Magnus Lindberg's new choral work GRAFFITI and a tour of Europe and Japan. Salonen has received some of the most important international prizes, including in 1993 that of the Accademia Chigiana, the first Conductor to receive it; in 1995 and 1997 those of the Royal Philharmonic Society Opera; in 1998 he was honoured with the title of Officier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres; in 2003 he was awarded a Doctorate honoris causa by the Sibelius Academy and in 2005 the Medal of the City of Helsinki. Esa-Pekka Salonen is particularly appreciated for his interpretations of contemporary music, of which he has given countless premieres: he has conducted music by Berlioz, Ligeti, Schönberg, Šostakovič, Stravinsky, Magnus Lindberg. He inaugurated the Baltic Sea Festival in 2003 and a series of concerts in Stockholm with famous orchestras, conductors and soloists, called to promote unity and ecological awareness among the countries of the Baltic region. Salonen's most recent engagements include concerts with major European and US orchestras. In 2006, he returned to the Opéra National de Paris to conduct Adriana Mater, the new opera by Kaija Saariaho, after conducting the Finnish premiere of L'amour de loin. Salonen has an extensive discography, with a repertoire ranging from Mahler and Revueltas to Magnus Lindberg and his own compositions. In the 2009/2010 season he conducted the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic and the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks; he also conducted a new production by Patrice Chéreau of Janáček's From the House of the Dead at the Metropolitan and Teatro alla Scala.