Danish-born Peter Martins (b. 1946), one of the greatest classical dancers of our time, has spent more than 30 years with New York City Ballet as dancer, choreographer, and ballet master. He has choreographed over 75 ballets, many of which are in New York City Ballet’s extensive repertory, alongside the works of Balanchine and Robbins. His dances are also in the repertory of the world’s great ballet companies. Mr. Martins is a champion of contemporary music and has choreographed to a wide range of composers from George Gershwin, John Adams, Michael Torke, and Wynton Marsalis to Tschaikovsky and Stravinsky. As Ballet Master in Chief of New York City Ballet, he is responsible for the ongoing operations of the Company and provides opportunities for emerging choreographers through the Diamond Project and the New York Choreographic Institute. He is also the Artistic Director and Chairman of the Faculty of the School of American Ballet. Mr. Martins has choreographed for Broadway and published his autobiography in 1982. His works have also been featured on many television programs, and his most recent works include the full-length production Romeo + Juliet and Grazioso; both premiered in 2007.

Esa-Pekka Salonen (b. Finland, 1958), studied horn, composing, and conducting at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki during the 1970s and composing with Niccolò Castiglioni and Franco Donatoni in Italy. He initially considered himself to be a conducting composer, until in 1983 (when he was 25 years old) he undertook a performance of Mahler’s third symphony with the Philharmonia Orchestra in London at short notice (stepping in for Michael Tilson Thomas) and became a composing conductor virtually overnight.

Over the years, Salonen has combined his international conducting career and preserved his individual voice as a composer. His first large scale orchestra work, Concerto for Alto Saxophone and Orchestra, dates from 1980–81, when Salonen was studying in Milan with Castiglioni. This was followed by Giro, which uses something of the same harmonic structure, and Floof, an experimental piece setting texts by the Polish science fiction writer Stanislaw Lem to music. This ebullient and histrionic tour de force for soprano and small ensemble won the UNESCO Rostrum prize in 1992 and has been widely performed and broadcast in Europe and the USA. In 1996, Salonen took time out from his conducting schedule to compose a major orchestra piece, LA Variations, which was commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, where he was Music Director.

Since September 2008, Salonen has been Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor of the Philharmonia Orchestra. In his first season he devised and led City of Dreams, a nine-month exploration of the music and culture of Vienna between 1900 and 1935. The project, which presents the music of Mahler, Schoenberg, Zemlinsky, and Berg in its social and historical context, has traveled to 18 cities across Europe.

Esa-Pekka Salonen’s guest conducting engagements in the 2009–10 Season include, among others, appearances with the New York Philharmonic, the Mahler Chamber Orchestra and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Salonen is renowned for his interpretations of contemporary music and has given countless premieres of new works. He has led critically acclaimed festivals of music by Berlioz, Ligeti, Schoenberg, Shostakovich, Stravinsky, and Magnus Lindberg.

Salonen is artistic director of the Baltic Sea Festival, which he co-initiated in 2003. As an annual event in August in Stockholm and across the Baltic Sea region, it invites celebrated orchestras, conductors, and soloists to promote unity and ecological awareness among the countries around the Baltic Sea. He is the recipient of many major awards; most recently, in June 2009 he received an honorary doctorate from the Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts.