Previous posts for June 30th are found here: Esa-Pekka Salonen (2019), Lena Horne (2020), Florence Ballard (2021), and John Gay (2022)
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Esa-Pekka Salonen (b. 30 June 1958) has been the Music Director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the San Francisco Symphony.
Variations on a Finnish Theme
Esa-Pekka Salonen's conducting classmates included Jukka-Pekka Saraste and Osmo Vänskä. – Wikipedia
[Finland] has produced an extraordinary array of top-level conductors, and six of the nation’s best known will be featured as part of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s 2023-24 season: Mikko Franck, Hannu Lintu, Klaus Mäkelä, Susanna Mälkki, Esa-Pekka Salonen and John Storgårds. – Kyle MacMillan, “Finnish conductors rule the CSO roost this season at Symphony Center,” at https://cso.org
(1)
No one knows for sure the secret of Finland’s classical-music prowess… - ibid.
The world of our orchestra’s spins
‘Round a cadre of musical Finns.
But would it diminish
The prestige of the Finnish
To share how this process begins?
(2)
It seems that the musical Finns
Have mastered the outs and the ins,
And the pros and the cons
Of training batons
For spectacular podium wins.
(3)
It seems they are infinite bins
Where the clever and musical Finns
Find brilliant conductors,
And also instructors
To keep them from musical sins.
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