Conductors Elias Peter Brown and Aleksandra Melaniuk have been selected by Esa-Pekka Salonen to join the San Francisco Symphony conducting staff in the 2023–24 season as an extension of their work as Salonen Fellows in the Colburn School Conservatory of Music’s Negaunee Conducting Program. Brown was assistant conductor for the San Francisco Symphony’s Opening Night Gala and All San Francisco concerts in September, and Melaniuk will begin her work with the Orchestra in January.
In addition to their work with the SF Symphony, throughout the program, the Fellows will study with Salonen at the Colburn School and serve as preparatory conductors for the Colburn Orchestra.
Elias Peter Brown works as a conductor, composer, improviser, and curator, seeking to create meaningful spaces for listening in and out of the concert hall.
This season, he serves as a Salonen Fellow in the Negaunee Conducting Program at Colburn Conservatory and the San Francisco Symphony, where he will assist Esa-Pekka Salonen internationally, including engagements with Orchestre de Paris, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Colburn Orchestra, and Ensemble Intercontemporain.
Brown was previously assistant conductor of the Korean National Symphony Orchestra in Seoul during the 2022–23 season, a role he assumed after winning First Prize and the Orchestra Prize at the Korean International Conducting Competition in 2021.
Based in Los Angeles and Berlin, Brown graduated with honors from Yale University and the Royal Academy of Music, where he studied with Sian Edwards. Brown is currently a scholarship holder of the Conducting Forum of the German Music Council and was the recipient of a 2023 Solti Foundation US Career Assistance Award.
Polish conductor Aleksandra Melaniuk has worked with the London Symphony Orchestra as a semi-finalist of the 17th Donatella Flick Conducting Competition, and is one of the winners of the 2023 Das Kritische Orchester, led by Forum Dirigieren. Raised in Warsaw and Edinburgh, Melaniuk is currently a Britten-Pears Young Artist (BPYA) for the 2023–24 season and a Salonen Fellow in the Negaunee Conducting Program at Colburn Conservatory and the San Francisco Symphony, where she will assist Esa-Pekka Salonen internationally.
In 2021, Melaniuk established her own orchestra and conducted several programs promoting British music in Poland.
