, Salonen once again boldly goes where few American music directors take their orchestras.
Novelties and experimentation are all the more daring as the Symphony is facing a big comeback challenge. Buying tickets and making contributions will be crucial after the pandemic hit the orchestra with an unprecedented drop in income, turning a large surplus into a sizeable deficit. Salonen repeated a sentiment first expressed when he took his position: “I came to the San Francisco Symphony because I felt there was a potential for something powerfully transformative to take place here, in this city where things begin, in this state where anything is possible. I could feel that there was something fast approaching — something that I wanted to be a part of.”
– Salonen leads world premiere performances of works by Samuel Adams, Magnus Lindberg and winner of the 2021 Emerging Black Composers Project Trevor Weston; U.S. premiere of Daniel Kidane’s “Precipice Dances.”