London Symphony Orchestra Partner Page
London Symphony Orchestra
The LSO has an enviable family of artists; our conductors include Sir Simon Rattle as Music Director, Gianandrea Noseda and François-Xavier Roth as Principal Guest Conductors,Michael Tilson Thomas as Conductor Laureate, and Associate Artists Barbara Hannigan and André J Thomas.
The Orchestra is self-governing and made up of nearly a hundred talented players who also perform regularly as soloists and in chamber groups at LSO St Luke's. The LSO is widely acclaimed by audiences and critics alike.
The LSO is proud to be Resident Orchestra at the Barbican Centre, where it performs around 70 concerts a year.
The residency has enabled the Orchestra to establish a truly loyal audience and to fulfil many artistic aspirations. Joint projects between the Orchestra and the Barbican place us at the heart of the Centre's programme.
The LSO also enjoys successful residencies at the Lincoln Center in New York, at the Philharmonie de Paris, and at Suntory Hall in Tokyo. Other regular tour destinations include the Far East, North America and all the major European cities.
Touring has been a part of the Orchestra's life since the very beginning. In its early years, the LSO made annual provincial tours, travelling around the country by train for two weeks at a time. The first of these tours in 1905 was conducted by Sir Edward Elgar and featured many of his own compositions. The Orchestra's first tour abroad was to Paris in 1906 when the Orchestra travelled with the 300-strong Leeds Choral Union to give two performances of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony at the Théâtre du Chatelet.
In 1912, the LSO embarked on a famous three-week tour to the United States, the first British orchestra to visit those distant shores. Legend has it that they narrowly avoided travelling on the ill-fated Titanic, sailing instead a few days earlier on her sister ship, the Baltic.
