Cynthia Erivo with the SF Symphony
September 14, 2024
Program
Jessie
Montgomery
Starburst
Jessie
Montgomery
Strum
Various
Cynthia Erivo with the SF Symphony
THIS CONCERT IS PRESENTED IN PARTNERSHIP WITH
Esa-Pekka Salonen
Conductor
Esa-Pekka Salonen is known as both a composer and conductor. He is the Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony, where he works alongside eight Collaborative Partners from a variety of disciplines, ranging from composers to roboticists. He is the Conductor Laureate of the Philharmonia Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra. As a member of the faculty of the Colburn School, he directs the pre-professional Negaunee Conducting Program. Salonen co-founded, and until 2018 served as the Artistic Director of, the annual Baltic Sea Festival.
Highlights from Esa-Pekka Salonen’s 2023–24 San Francisco Symphony season include world premieres from Jesper Nordin, Anders Hillborg, and Jens Ibsen; projects by Collaborative Partners Pekka Kuusisto and Carol Reiley; the launch of the inaugural California Festival; a tour of California; and a program of Ravel and Schoenberg featuring choreography by Alonzo King and staging by Peter Sellars.
Salonen also conducts many of his own compositions around the world this season. Among them are Tiu, a new work commemorating the 20th anniversary of Walt Disney Concert Hall, premiered by the Los Angeles Philharmonic; Karawane, also with the Los Angeles Philharmonic; Salonen’s Sinfonia Concertante for Organ and Orchestra with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Philadelphia Orchestra; and kínēma with the San Francisco Symphony and Philadelphia Orchestra.
Salonen has an extensive and varied recording career. Releases with the San Francisco Symphony include recordings of Bartók’s piano concertos, as well as spatial audio recordings of several Ligeti compositions. Other recent recordings include Strauss’s Four Last Songs, Bartók’s Miraculous Mandarin and Dance Suite, and a 2018 box set of his complete Sony recordings. His compositions appear on releases from Sony, Deutsche Grammophon, and Decca; his Piano Concerto, Violin Concerto, and Cello Concerto all appear on recordings he conducted himself.
Highlights from Esa-Pekka Salonen’s 2023–24 San Francisco Symphony season include world premieres from Jesper Nordin, Anders Hillborg, and Jens Ibsen; projects by Collaborative Partners Pekka Kuusisto and Carol Reiley; the launch of the inaugural California Festival; a tour of California; and a program of Ravel and Schoenberg featuring choreography by Alonzo King and staging by Peter Sellars.
Salonen also conducts many of his own compositions around the world this season. Among them are Tiu, a new work commemorating the 20th anniversary of Walt Disney Concert Hall, premiered by the Los Angeles Philharmonic; Karawane, also with the Los Angeles Philharmonic; Salonen’s Sinfonia Concertante for Organ and Orchestra with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Philadelphia Orchestra; and kínēma with the San Francisco Symphony and Philadelphia Orchestra.
Salonen has an extensive and varied recording career. Releases with the San Francisco Symphony include recordings of Bartók’s piano concertos, as well as spatial audio recordings of several Ligeti compositions. Other recent recordings include Strauss’s Four Last Songs, Bartók’s Miraculous Mandarin and Dance Suite, and a 2018 box set of his complete Sony recordings. His compositions appear on releases from Sony, Deutsche Grammophon, and Decca; his Piano Concerto, Violin Concerto, and Cello Concerto all appear on recordings he conducted himself.
Cynthia Erivo
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Vocalist
Cynthia Erivo is a Grammy, Emmy, and Tony Award–winning actress, singer, author, and producer, as well as an Academy Award, Golden Globe, and Screen Actors Guild nominee. She stars as Elphaba in Universal’s upcoming film adaptation of the hit musical Wicked, opposite Ariana Grande’s Glinda. Part 1 of Wicked releases on November 27, with Part 2 releasing next year.
Erivo also produced and starred in Drift, a movie about a young Liberian refugee who escapes her war-torn country to a Greek island. She also starred opposite Idris Elba and Andy Serkis in Netflix’s Luther: The Fallen Sun, and starred in Disney+’s Pinocchio as the Blue Fairy opposite Tom Hanks.
Erivo has received widespread critical acclaim including two Academy Awards nominations, two Golden Globe nominations, and a Grammy Award nomination for her portrayal of Harriet Tubman in 2019’s Harriet, for which she cowrote and performed the song “Stand Up.” Erivo also received SAG and Emmy Award nominations for her portrayal of Aretha Franklin in National Geographic’s Emmy-winning global anthology series Genius: Aretha.
In addition to her acting career, Erivo is a Grammy-nominated songwriter and performer, and has appeared at the Kennedy Center Honors, Academy Awards, Grammy Awards, and Governor’s Ball. She released her debut album, Ch. 1 Vs. 1, with Verve/Universal Music Group in 2021. She makes her San Francisco Symphony debut with these concerts.
Erivo became an author in 2021 with the release of her first children’s book, Remember to Dream, Ebere. The book follows a young girl whose mother encourages her to dream as big as possible. Erivo wrote the book as an ode to a child’s imagination, a parent’s love, and the big dreams shared by both.
In August 2020, Erivo launched her production company, Edith’s Daughter, and announced her first-look deal with MRC Television and Civic Center Media. Edith’s Daughter focuses on projects that express the beauty in the stories and people who are often overlooked and underrepresented. Erivo named Solome Williams as vice president of the company.
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