Edward Gardner Extends Contract as Principal Conductor of London Philharmonic Orchestra

The London Philharmonic Orchestra has announced that Principal Conductor, Edward Gardner, will extend his tenure in the role for another two years. Edward Gardner became the LPO’s 13th Principal Conductor in 2021. He also serves as Music Director of the Norwegian Opera and Ballet and Honorary Conductor of the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, following his time as Chief Conductor. 

During the upcoming 2024/25 season, Gardner will conduct the Orchestra in concerts in London and Brighton, and on tour in Europe, Asia and North America. He will conduct nine LPO concerts at the Royal Festival Hall, and present some of music’s biggest and best-loved works including Strauss’s mighty Alpine Symphony, Rachmaninoff’s The Bells, Ravel’s Daphnis and Chloe, and Mahler’s Symphony No. 8. 

Gardner recently led Sky Arts’s behind-the-scenes documentary Backstage with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, documenting the lead-up to and performance of Mahler’s monumental Symphony No. 2 (Resurrection) on the opening weekend of the LPO’s 2023/24 season. The documentary aired in spring 2024, with The Times calling Gardner ‘a passionate, popular maestro’.

The 2023/24 season saw Gardner conduct the LPO in ten concerts at the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, as well as touring with the Orchestra to South Korea and Taiwan, Paris, Munich, Frankfurt, Hamburg and Bruges. As part of the LPO festival ‘The Music in You’ in March 2024, he conducted concerts including Haydn’s The Creation, which The Arts Desk praised in their four-star review, ‘with Edward Gardner keeping the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus on their dancing toes, as ever (…) it was a good time for happy creativity’. He also conducted a reinvention of Szymanowski’s ballet Harnasie in collaboration with choreographer Wayne McGregor; Weill’s Seven Deadly Sins, which The Telegraph called ‘surpassingly vivid’ in their four-star review; and Mozart’s Mass in C minor. 

Gardner’s recording on the LPO’s own label of Tippett’s The Midsummer Marriage (LPO-0124), captured live at his first concert as Principal Conductor in 2021, won a 2023 Gramophone Award for Best Opera Recording. A disc of Tippett’s Symphony No. 2 and the composer’s Piano Concerto with soloist Steven Osborne, both also recorded live in concert, is planned for release on the label later this autumn. In February 2024 the LPO released a recording of his performance of Berlioz’s The Damnation of Faust with the Orchestra, recorded live in concert in 2023 (LPO-0128).

Previous LPO Principal Conductors have included some of the greatest historic names like Sir Adrian Boult, Bernard Haitink, Sir Georg Solti, Klaus Tennstedt and Kurt Masur.

Edward Gardner, Principal Conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra says: ‘I’m thrilled to be extending my contract for another two years with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Our partnership so far has been packed with too many memorable performances to list, and this season promises plenty more as we look forward to performing and touring all over the world. My relationship with the incredible musicians within the Orchestra is a very special one, growing with each project, and I feel so privileged to be able to tap into their huge passion and commitment, enabling us to produce music-making of the highest quality. I’m really excited about the future possibilities.’