Esa-Pekka Salonen will be the next maestro of the Orchestre de Paris

The Finnish saga continues at the Orchestre de Paris, which announced on September 2 the appointment, for a five-year period, of Esa-Pekka Salonen (67 years old) to succeed conductor Klaus Mäkelä (29 years old), whose mandate will end at the end of the 2026-2027 season . Almost two generations separate the Helsinki-born duo, whom the French orchestra can be proud of having been able to bait and hook. Esa-Pekka Salonen, one of the ten most highly rated conductors of recent decades, has for many years been in the sights of Parisian orchestras, starting with that of the Paris Opera, which has long had its eyes on him (and where he notably conducted, in April 2005, Wagner's Tristan in the vision of videographer Bill Viola ).

But the Philharmonie managed to seduce the maestro, who was also a composer, by playing a major card. It offered the Finn, in addition to the position of principal conductor of the Orchestre de Paris (Salonen did not want to take on the managerial burdens of music director), that of holder of the Chair of Creation and Innovation at the Philharmonie de Paris.

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