Tribute Concert to Frank Gehry - 7 July 2026

The Orchestra has premiered works by Richard Strauss, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, Kaija Saariaho, Errollyn Wallen, Laufey and many others, and performs with many of the world’s most admired soloists.

The Philharmonia thrives on creative collaborations: in the 2025/26 season, pianist Víkingur Ólafsson is Featured Artist, Gabriela Ortiz is Featured Composer, and dance, mime, theatre and drag artists Thick & Tight are Artists in Residence.

The Philharmonia is resident at the Southbank Centre in the heart of London, and also holds residencies in Basingstoke, Bedford, Canterbury and Leicester, at Garsington Opera and at the Three Choirs Festival. In each of these residencies, the Orchestra is deeply embedded in the community. Projects with primary and secondary schools, children in foster care, people living with dementia and their carers, young people learning instruments, and adults who face barriers to experiencing the arts, all testify to the many ways music enriches our lives.

This season the Philharmonia celebrates its 80th birthday with initiatives including offering 80 free tickets for first-time bookers to every concert in its London season; recruiting a team of 80 volunteers to help provide a warm welcome; reaching 80 schools with Orchestra Unwrapped, its programme of schools’ concerts and teacher training; and establishing Philharmonia Social, a chance for audience members to meet and find out more about the orchestra.

The Philharmonia tours extensively throughout Europe and has performed in China, Colombia, Japan, Mauritius and the United States. In October 2025 the Orchestra embarks on a major US tour, culminating in two performances at Carnegie Hall. The season also includes a tour of Korea, and performances at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Musikverein in Vienna, and many other leading European venues.

The Philharmonia is known for embracing innovative technology. The Orchestra’s recordings include benchmark LPs, more than 150 film and videogame soundtracks, and streamed performances. Its recording of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 is travelling through interstellar space on board the Voyager spacecraft, and its immersive installations and virtual reality (VR) experiences have introduced many thousands of people to orchestral music.

The Philharmonia Records label was established in 2023. The Orchestra has released live recordings of major works by Strauss, Mahler, Stravinsky and Shostakovich, with Santtu at the helm.

The Philharmonia’s Emerging Artists Programme nurtures and develops the next generation of instrumentalists and composers, with a focus on increasing diversity within the classical music industry.

The Philharmonia is a registered charity. It is proud to be supported by Arts Council England and grateful to the many generous individuals, businesses, trusts and foundations who make up its family of supporters.

In recent seasons, Salonen has co-founded the statewide California Festival with Gustavo Dudamel and Rafael Payare; led a synesthetic production of Scriabin’s Prometheus: the Poem of Fire in collaboration with pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet and Cartier’s head perfumer Mathilde Laurent, recently made the subject of a documentary produced by Cartier in partnership with Mezzo TV; and held residencies at the Berlin Philharmonic, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, and Salzburg Easter Festival. He also led the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra in a Salzburg Easter Festival residency featuring a Simon McBurney production of Modest Mussorgsky’s unfinished opera Khovanshchina, with never-before heard music compiled by Gerard McBurney from a recently rediscovered manuscript.

Salonen begins the 2025–26 season on tour with the Orchestre de Paris, centered on the premiere of his new Horn Concerto, composed for Stefan Dohr. After a world premiere at the Lucerne Festival and performances in Berlin and Hamburg, he brings the piece to the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Filarmonica della Scala, and Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra. Other conducting highlights this season include a pair of Pierre Boulez centennial programs at the New York Philharmonic, featuring Notations with Pierre-Laurent Aimard and Rituel with choreography by Benjamin Millepied; residencies with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Bergen International Festival; and dates with the LA Phil, Philadelphia Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and Orchestre de Paris. He concludes the season at the Ojai Music Festival, which he curates as the 2026 Music Director.

Salonen is as well-known for his intuitive and cerebral compositions as he is for his work as a conductor. He conducts several of his compositions this season, including Tiu and Dona Nobis Pacem with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, and his Sinfonia concertante for organ and orchestra with Olivier Latry and the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra. His music is also programmed, with other conductors, at orchestras and ensembles around the world.

Esa-Pekka Salonen has an extensive and varied recording career, both as a conductor and composer. Recent releases include the GRAMMY® Award-winning (Best Opera Recording) world premiere recording of Kaija Saariaho’s Adriana Mater on Deutsche Grammophon, recordings of Bartók’s three piano concertos with Pierre-Laurent Aimard on Pentatone, as well as spatial audio recordings of Ligeti’s Clocks and Clouds, Lux Aeterna, and Ramifications on Apple Music Classical. His concertos for piano (composed for Yefim Bronfman), violin (for Leila Josefowicz, featured in an ad campaign for the Apple iPad), and cello (for Yo-Yo Ma) all appear on recordings conducted by Salonen himself.

Esa-Pekka Salonen was educated at Helsinki’s Sibelius Academy, where he founded the new music appreciation group Korvat Auki and ensemble Toimii with classmates Magnus Lindberg and Kaija Saariaho. He is the recipient of numerous awards and honors including Sweden’s Litteris et Artibus medal; the Pro Finlandia Medal of the Order of the Lion of Finland, the Helsinki Medal, and Commander, First Class of the Order of the Lion of Finland; Poland’s Gloria Artis Medal for Merit to Culture; and the Rank of Commandeur of France’s Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. He was elected an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2010 and appointed an honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) by Queen Elizabeth II in 2020. In 2023, he led the Nobel Prize Concert, and in 2024 received the Polar Music Prize. To date, he has received seven honorary doctorates in four different countries.

He frequently leads performances of his orchestral works Asyla (1997), Tevot (2007), Polaris (2010), Violin Concerto Concentric Paths (2005), In Seven Days for piano and orchestra (2008); Totentanz for mezzo-soprano, baritone, and orchestra (2013); and the Concerto for Piano and Orchestra (2019).  His compositions also include numerous celebrated chamber and solo works.

September 2023 saw Thomas Adès conduct the Gewandhausorchester as part of his two-season residency with the ensemble which sees him appear as a conductor, pianist and composer in various concert formats. This autumn Thomas also began a two-season residency with the Hallé orchestra, which sees him conduct two orchestral concerts and curate a chamber programme. For the first appearance on 28 October, Thomas conducted the UK premiere of Tower, as well as the first UK concert performance of his ballet Purgatorio, alongside his Märchentänze for violin and orchestra with Anthony Marwood, which received its UK premiere at last year’s BBC Proms.

Thomas Adès has been the Artistic Partner of the Boston Symphony Orchestra since 2016 and he conducts the orchestra every year in Boston and at Tanglewood. He also regularly coaches Piano and Chamber Music at the International Musicians Seminar, Prussia Cove. 

As conductor, Thomas appears regularly with the Los Angeles and London Philharmonic orchestras, the Boston, London, BBC, Finnish Radio and City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestras, the Royal Concertgebouworkest, Leipzig Gewandhaus and the Orchestra of Santa Cecilia, Rome. In opera, in addition to The Exterminating Angel, he has conducted The Rake’s Progress at the Royal Opera House and Zürich Opera, and the premieres of three operas by Gerald Barry, including the Los Angeles world premieres of The Importance of Being Earnest and Alice’s Adventures Under Ground, of which he also gave the European premiere at Covent Garden. Recent highlights include Thomas’s debut concerts with the Vienna Philharmonic and his conducting debut with the Berlin Philharmonic. In Summer 2022 he conducted the world premiere of Air for violin and orchestra at the Lucerne Festival, a Roche commission for Anne-Sophie Mutter and the Lucerne Festival Contemporary Orchestra. 

His CD recording of The Tempest from the Royal Opera House (EMI) won the Contemporary category of the 2010 Gramophone Awards; his DVD of the production from the Metropolitan Opera was awarded the Diapason d'Or de l'année (2013), Best Opera recording (2014 Grammy Awards) and Music DVD Recording of the Year (2014 ECHO Klassik Awards).

His piano engagements have included solo recitals at Carnegie Hall (Stern Auditorium) in New York and the Wigmore Hall in London, and concerto appearances with the New York Philharmonic and Boston Symphony Orchestra. Recent piano releases include an album of solo piano music by Janáček and a live album of Winterreise with Ian Bostridge. His solo disc of Janáček’s piano music won the 2018 Janáček medal.

Season highlights include Yuja’s year-long “Artist Spotlight” at the Barbican Centre, where she curates and performs in four distinct events: the first London performance of John Adams’ newest piano concerto (premiered by her in Spring 2019) titled Must the Devil Have All the Good Tunes? with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Gustavo Dudamel, which they take to Boston and New York City; recitals featuring cellist Gautier Capuçon and clarinetist Andreas Ottensamer; and she concludes the residency with a solo recital.

In autumn of 2019, she tours China with the Vienna Philharmonic, presenting concerts in Macao, Guangzhou, Shanghai, and Wuhan. The beginning of 2020 sees Yuja and Gautier Capuçon reuniting for a recital tour featuring eleven dates presented in Europe’s premiere venues, including the Philharmonie de Paris and the Wiener Konzerthaus. She then embarks on an extensive solo recital tour, appearing in renowned concert halls throughout North America and Europe, including Carnegie Hall, Davies Symphony Hall, and the Het Concertgebouw, running from February to April.

Additionally, Yuja will be the featured soloist with some of the leading orchestras of North America, including the Boston Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of Andris Nelsons; the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Gustavo Gimeno; the San Francisco Symphony, led by Michael Tilson Thomas; and the Philadelphia Orchestra, under the musical direction of Yannick Nézet-Séguin.

Yuja received advanced training in Canada and at Philadelphia’s Curtis Institute of Music under Gary Graffman. Her international breakthrough came in 2007 when she replaced Martha Argerich as soloist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. She later signed an exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon and has since established her place among the world’s leading artists, with a succession of critically acclaimed performances and recordings.

Daniel Lozakovich regularly performs with leading orchestras such as Chicago, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Boston and San Francisco orchestras, BBC Symphony at BBC Proms, London Philharmonic, Philharmonia Orchestra, Budapest Festival, Bayerisches Staatsorchester, Munich Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, Orchestres National et Philharmonique de Radio France, Filarmonica della Scala in Teatro Alla Scala, Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della Rai, Swedish Radio Symphony and Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Oslo Philharmonic, Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Lucerne Festival, Sydney Symphony, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Singapore Symphony, NHK Symphony, Yomiuri Nippon Symphony and Seoul Philharmonic. He regularly performs with eminent conductors such as Klaus Mäkelä, Riccardo Chailly, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Andris Nelsons, Ádám Fischer, Semyon Bychkov, Christoph Eschenbach, Nathalie Stutzmann, Neeme Järvi, Valery Gergiev, Andrés Orozco-Estrada, Vasily Petrenko, Tarmo Peltokoski, Lahav Shani, Lorenzo Viotti, Kazuki Yamada, Fabien Gabel, Osmo Vänskä and Rafael Payare.  

As a highly sought-after recitalist, he has made appearances in historical venues such as Carnegie Hall, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Tonhalle Zürich, Victoria Hall Geneva, Conservatorio G. Verdi Milan, The Mariinsky Theatre and more. On tour, he has regularly appeared in esteemed concert halls such as Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Concertgebouw Amsterdam and Konzerthaus Wien. Lozakovich is a regular at international music festivals, including Verbier Festival, Gstaad Menuhin Festival, Sommets musicaux de Gstaad, Festival de Pâques – Aix-en-Provence, Tanglewood Music Festival, Blossom Music Festival, Pacific Music Festival, among many others. 

As a chamber musician, he has collaborated with artists such as Klaus Mäkelä, Yuja Wang, Emanuel Ax, Ivry Gitlis, Alexander Kantorow, Sergei Babayan, Martin Fröst, the brothers Renaud and Gautier Capuçon, Mischa Maisky, Alexandre Kantorow, Behzod Abduraimov, and David Fray.

Daniel Lozakovich has already achieved considerable acclaim on record, having been signed by Deutsche Grammophon at just 15 years old. His recording of J.S. Bach’s two Violin Concertos reached number one in the all-music category of the French Amazon charts as well as the classical album charts in Germany. His live recording of None but The Lonely Heart was named a Top Choice by Gramophone, ranking among the best recordings of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto spanning the past 70 years. In 2020 he released his highly acclaimed live recording of Beethoven’s Violin Concerto. In 2024, he signed an exclusive contract with Warner Classics, and recorded with pianist Mikhail Pletnev on a debut album, which led to performances in Taipei, Kaohsiung, Vienna’s Musikverein, Berlin’s Philharmonie, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, and Munich’s Herkulesaal.

Lozakovich has been awarded many prizes including first prize at Vladimir Spivakov International Violin Competition 2016, Young Artist of the Year 2017 at Festival of Nations, Premio Batuta Award in Mexico, and Excelentia Prize under the honorary presidency of Queen Sofia of Spain. Lozakovich studied at Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe with Professor Josef Rissin from 2012 and graduated with a Master’s degree in 2021.

Born in Stockholm in 2001, he began playing the violin at the age of seven. He made his solo debut two years later with Vladimir Spivakov. From 2015 he has been mentored by Eduard Wulfson in Geneva. Daniel Lozakovich plays the “ex-Sancy” 1713 Stradivari generously loaned by LVMH / MOËT HENNESSY LOUIS VUITTON.