On a late afternoon in May, pop and classical music luminaries gathered in the neo-Gothic sanctuary of a 19th-century church-turned-Soho House in Stockholm.
With drinks in hand, they listened as the 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.
The day after his interview with Benkö, he received the Polar Music Prize, an honor that has been called the Nobel Prize of music, directly from the hands of the Swedish king.
Persons:
Cilla Benkö, Esa, Pekka Salonen, “, ”, Salonen, ” Salonen, Benkö
Organizations:
Soho House, Polar
Locations:
Stockholm, Swedish
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