ESA PIETILÄ is known as a genre-hopping sax player, a wide-ranging composer and an improviser. He has performed as a concert soloist with conductors such as Esa-Pekka Salonen, Ville Matvejeff, Santtu-Matias Rouvali, Tibor Bogányi, Jan Söderblom, Hossein Pishkar and Erkki Lasonpalo, performing among other things the world premieres of his own two Saxophone Concertos and concertos written for him by Kalevi Aho and Eero Hämeenniemi.

Besides solo performances and appearances with orchestras and chamber ensembles, he combines contemporary music, jazz and improvisation in ensembles that he leads: Liberty Ship with Norwegian pianist Howard Wiik and bass player Ole Morten Vågan and Finnish drummer Olavi Louhivuori; Sonic Decode with guitar player Raoul Björkenheim and drummer Janne Tuomi, established in 2020; and duos with organist Pétur Sakari, accordionist Veli Kujala, kantele artist Eija Kankaanranta, harpsichord player Assi Karttunen and Estonian guitarist Mart Soo.