Esa-Pekka Salonen and The Colburn Orchestra Come to The Soraya Next Month

Composer, conductor, and current Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony, Esa-Pekka Salonen returns to The Soraya's podium for the third time on Saturday, November 13 at 8pm as he conducts the Colburn Orchestra, the flagship orchestra of the Colburn School's Conservatory of Music, which has gained international acclaim for producing the next generation of world-class musicians.

At this concert, the second of five free performances at The Soraya this fall, the program features Shostakovich's Violin Concerto No. 1 and Bruckner's Symphony No. 6. Salonen is part of the faculty of the Colburn School, where he develops, leads, and directs the pre-professional Negaunee Conducting Program

Tickets are free and are available at www.thesoraya.org and by calling 818-677-3000. The Soraya is located at 18111 Nordhoff Street, Northridge, CA 91330.

Esa-Pekka Salonen's restless innovation drives him constantly to reposition classical music in the 21st century. He is the Conductor Laureate for the Los Angeles Philharmonic, where he was Music Director from 1992 until 2009, the Philharmonia Orchestra, where he was Principal Conductor & Artistic Advisor from 2008 until 2021, and the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra.. Salonen co-founded-and from 2003 until 2018 served as the Artistic Director for-the annual Baltic Sea Festival, which invites celebrated artists to promote unity and ecological awareness among the countries around the Baltic Sea. Esa-Pekka Salonen is the recipient of many major awards. Most recently, in 2020, he was appointed an honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) by the Queen of England.

Under the direction of Music Director Yehuda Gilad, the Colburn Orchestra performs for Southern California audiences at venues such as the Walt Disney Concert Hall, Ambassador Auditorium, Royce Hall, The Broad Stage, Segerstrom Concert Hall, and The Soraya. Dedicated to serving the greater Los Angeles community, the Colburn Orchestra performs for schools in neighboring communities every year, giving five concerts in a one-week period to school children of all ages.

Since the inception of the Orchestra, Gilad and the esteemed Colburn faculty have invited leading guest artists to perform with the Colburn Orchestra to mirror a professional orchestral experience. Previous visiting conductors include James Conlon, Gustavo Dudamel, Valery Gergiev, Sir Neville Marriner, Kurt Masur, Nicolas McGegan, Ludovic Morlot, Esa-Pekka Salonen, and Michael Tilson Thomas. Guest soloists include violinists Joshua Bell, Cho-Liang Lin, Elmar Oliveira, and Pinchas Zukerman; soprano Elizabeth Hynes; mezzo-sopranos Sasha Cooke and Michelle DeYoung; pianist Vladimir Feltsman; and saxophonist Claude Delangle. Acclaimed artists such as Mstislav Rostropovich and Itzhak Perlman actively worked with the orchestra during its inaugural year.