The London Philharmonic Orchestra announces 2026/27 London season

Tue 21 Apr, 2026

Key highlights:

• The LPO’s season theme, In Search of Purpose, explores the human spirit’s resilience and the quest for meaning, inspired by Beethoven’s triumph over despair and the ways subsequent composers have used music as a vessel to confront existential questions, seek solace in the aftermath of war, and search for light in times of darkness.
• The season anchors itself in Beethoven’s personal resilience, featuring his iconic Fifth Symphony as a central journey from darkness to light alongside a complete cycle of his Piano Concertos, including the rarely performed early Concerto in E flat.
• To celebrate the London Philharmonic Choir’s 80th anniversary, LPO Principal Conductor Edward Gardner leads four major choral works that grapple with the human condition: from British responses to the shadow of war in Vaughan Williams’s Dona Nobis Pacem and Britten’s War Requiem, to the the quest for redemption of Schumann’s Paradise and the Peri and the intimate meditation on faith in Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius.
• The season offers an orchestral feast designed to showcase the LPO’s full range of colour and power, featuring Stravinsky’s complete The Firebird, Tippett’s Fourth Symphony, Tchaikovsky’s Manfred Symphony and Zemlinsky’s The Mermaid.
• The LPO will be joined by a distinguished roster of soloists this season, including cellist Kian Soltani, violinists Julia Fischer, Hilary Hahn, Christian Tetzlaff and Patricia Kopatchinskaja, alongside pianists Víkingur Ólafsson, Alice Sara Ott, Kirill Gerstein and Dame Mitsuko Uchida. The LPO welcomes an exceptional array of vocal talent this season, featuring sopranos Renée Fleming, Christiane Karg, Rosa Feola and Louise Alder, alongside tenors Allan Clayton and Michael Spyres, baritone Benjamin Appl and bass-baritone Gerald Finley.
• New music remains a core pillar this season, with premieres by Dame Judith Weir, Mark Simpson, Jacob Mühlrad and Dai Fujikura, alongside the European premiere of Kevin Puts’s The Brightness of Light.
• The Orchestra continues its collaboration with Composer-in-Residence Sir George Benjamin, highlighted by Edward Gardner conducting his acclaimed opera Lessons in Love and Violence.
• The LPO remains an industry leader in talent development, welcoming new cohorts for the 2026/27 season. This includes 16 early-career musicians in the Future Firsts programme, two Fellow Conductors, five Young Composers, and a fresh intake of  LPO Junior Artists, the LPO’s trailblazing mentorship programme for talented teenage musicians from under-represented backgrounds, which celebrates its 10th anniversary this year.
• The Orchestra’s social impact continues to grow, reaching 30,000 people annually through diverse education and community initiatives. Key projects this season include the FUNharmonics family concert series, the Crisis Creates programme for adults experiencing homelessness, and the award-winning OrchLab programme, as well as many other projects with schools and communities in London and beyond.
• Building on an established reputation for grassroots community collaborations, the LPO is now working with 15 partners across East and West Sussex to champion inclusion, nurture local talent, and support wellbeing through music. This season marks a significant geographic expansion of the Orchestra’s South Coast activity, extending its award-winning community work into Bognor Regis, Dover and Folkestone.

Today, the London Philharmonic Orchestra unveils its 2026/27 London season at the Southbank Centre, marking the venue’s landmark 75th anniversary year and continuing the LPO’s celebrated tenure as a Resident Orchestra. Edward Gardner opens the season on 26 September 2026, launching a season exploring the theme In Search of Purpose with Britten’s War Requiem, a powerful gesture of reconciliation. The performance features the London Philharmonic Choir alongside a stellar cast comprising soprano Natalya Romaniw, tenor Allan Clayton and baritone Benjamin Appl. The season closes on 24 April 2027 with Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius, an unforgettable human drama also conducted by Gardner. Principal Guest Conductor Karina Canellakis and Conductor Emeritus Vladimir Jurowski also take to the podium throughout the season.

Edward Gardner, Principal Conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, says:

‘I’m so excited to be launching our 2026/27 season with such an extraordinary range of music. Britten’s War Requiem is a truly powerful gesture of remembrance and reconciliation that speaks directly to our time. I’m also really looking forward to sharing Stravinsky’s complete Firebird and Zemlinsky’s The Mermaid. These works will free the Orchestra to showcase all the elements of the LPO’s personality: its incredible range, vividness, and soul.’

Earlier this year, the LPO announced the appointment of Paavo Järvi as its future Chief Conductor & Artistic Advisor. One of the most respected and sought-after conductors of his generation, Järvi will succeed current Principal Conductor Edward Gardner, assuming the role at the start of the 2028/29 season. With an initial five-year contract, Järvi’s appointment marks an important new chapter for the Orchestra, as it approaches its 2032 centenary. This season, Järvi will conduct a programme featuring Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 10 on 17 February 2027.

In Search of Purpose 

In 1802, at the age of 31, Beethoven retreated to the country village of Heiligenstadt. Few knew that he was losing his hearing; in despair, he contemplated ending his life. ‘Only art withheld me,’ he confessed. ‘It seemed impossible to leave the world until I had created all that I felt called upon to create.’ At the darkest moment of his life, Beethoven found a way forward through music. In his hands, music itself was elevated to a new level of transcendence – a vessel for human expression and hope – whose influence continues to shape the music of our own time. It is from this journey of exploration that the season takes its title: In Search of Purpose.

Throughout the season, the LPO will present the most iconic example of Beethoven’s journey from darkness to light, his Fifth Symphony, alongside a cycle of his piano concertos (including the rarely heard early Concerto in E flat). The season will also feature works with direct links to Beethoven’s legacy, from Brahms’s First Symphony and Schumann’s Julius Caesar Overture to contemporary works such as Unsuk Chin’s subito con forza and a new commission by Dai Fujikura.

The Orchestra expands upon this search for purpose, introducing works by multiple composers who found themselves confronting existential questions, striving for reconciliation in the aftermath of war – a topic of profound relevance in our own time – grappling with grief, and speaking out in times of oppression.

Principal Conductor Edward Gardner opens the season with Britten’s great plea for peace, his War Requiem, and concludes it with Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius – a confrontation with the supreme questions of existence. The season also includes a celebration of the London Philharmonic Choir’s 80th anniversary year, and symphonies by Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov, Tippett and Bruckner that all engage with this eternal search for meaning, while premieres by Dame Judith Weir, Mark Simpson and Jacob Mühlrad explore the questions and struggles of our own time.

The Orchestra performs with some of the world’s pre-eminent conductors and soloists and especially looks forward to its concerts with Principal Guest Conductor Karina Canellakis and Conductor Emeritus Vladimir Jurowski, as well as its new Chief Conductor & Artistic Advisor Designate Paavo Järvi.

This fascinating exploration of repertoire and concepts demonstrates that music has the power to express the noblest and deepest essence of human nature. 

Jesús Herrera, Artistic Director of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, says:

‘This season launches the first chapter of a series of themes designed to help us connect with the profound depth of our music. We have tied these programmes together to ensure these performances resonate with every listener, demonstrating how music can express the deepest essence of human nature and inviting us all to truly listen.’

Principal Conductor Edward Gardner

The  opening concert, on 26 September 2026, launches a season exploring the search for purpose with Britten’s War Requiem, a powerful gesture of reconciliation, conducted by Edward Gardner. The performance features the London Philharmonic Choir alongside a stellar cast comprising soprano Natalya Romaniw, tenor Allan Clayton and baritone Benjamin Appl.

Other season highlights with Gardner include the world premiere of Mark Simpson’s Piano Concerto with Víkingur Ólafsson, paired with Stravinsky’s complete score for The Firebird, and a semi-staged performance of Composer-in-Residence Sir George Benjamin’s acclaimed opera Lessons in Love and Violence. Gardner also explores thrilling extremes with violinists Patricia Kopatchinskaja in Shostakovich and Pekka Kuusisto in Sibelius, and returns to Tchaikovsky’s Manfred Symphony.

The spring sees Gardner lead a programme of Romantic works including Zemlinsky’s The Mermaid, as well as a rare performance of Schumann’s Das Paradies und die Peri. To celebrate the London Philharmonic Choir’s 80th anniversary, he conducts Fauré’s Requiem alongside music by Vaughan Williams and a choral world premiere by Dame Judith Weir. The season concludes on 24 April with Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius, again with the LPC.

Principal Guest Conductor Karina Canellakis

Principal Guest Conductor Karina Canellakis leads three concerts in 2026/27, showcasing the ‘explosive chemistry’ between conductor and Orchestra that has become a hallmark of their partnership. In November, she conducts two programmes at the Royal Festival Hall, beginning with Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 paired with a UK premiere by Dai Fujikura and Elgar’s Violin Concerto, featuring soloist Christian Tetzlaff. This is followed by Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4 performed by Alice Sara Ott, set alongside Mahler’s Symphony No. 1.

In January 2027, Canellakis returns for a programme that opens with Robert Schumann’s Julius Caesar Overture, after which she is joined by Hilary Hahn for Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 5 (‘Turkish’). The evening concludes with Brahms’s Symphony No. 1.

Conductor Emeritus Vladimir Jurowski

Conductor Emeritus Vladimir Jurowski returns for two landmark concerts in 2026/27. He begins in March with a programme exploring music that Wagner, Beethoven and Bruckner believed held the key to existence itself. This profound evening features Wagner’s Prelude to Parsifal and Bruckner’s Symphony No. 7, centered around Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3 performed by the legendary Dame Mitsuko Uchida.

In April, Jurowski returns to the Royal Festival Hall stage to lead a complete concert performance of Tchaikovsky’s The Sleeping Beauty. Following his ‘thrilling’ 2021 interpretation of Swan Lake with the Orchestra, Jurowski is uniquely equipped to interpret this complete ballet score, transforming a beloved fairy tale into an intensely human drama.

Paavo Järvi, Chief Conductor & Artistic Advisor Designate

In the 2026/27 season, the London Philharmonic Orchestra welcomes Paavo Järvi in his new role as Chief Conductor & Artistic Advisor Designate. In February 2027, he leads the Orchestra in a programme headlined by Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 10, a gripping testament to oppression where, under Järvi’s leadership, every note hits home. The evening begins with Overture No. 2 by Järvi’s fellow Estonian, Veljo Tormis – a work composed during the height of the Cold War. This is followed by Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 5 (‘Emperor’), performed by  the acclaimed Benjamin Grosvenor. 

Premieres

The London Philharmonic Orchestra’s 2026/27 season features several high-profile premieres, including major new commissions and long-awaited regional debuts. Acting as a first chapter for the Orchestra’s thematic exploration of The Power of Listening, many of these new works delve into existential questions and contemporary struggles.

In October, Edward Gardner conducts the world premiere of a new Piano Concerto by Mark Simpson, a significant LPO commission featuring soloist Víkingur Ólafsson. This is followed in January by the world premiere of Jacob Mühlrad’s Kavanah, a meditation on Jewish spirituality for clarinet and orchestra, featuring soloist Martin Fröst. In February, the London Philharmonic Choir celebrates its 80th anniversary with the world premiere of Dame Judith Weir’s Respire, Inspire, commissioned by the Orchestra as a landmark birthday gift.

The season also includes the European premiere of Kevin Puts’s The Brightness of Light: an evocative work inspired by the letters of Georgia O’Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz, featuring soprano Renée Fleming and baritone Lucas Meachem. Additionally, Karina Canellakis leads the UK premiere of a new work by Dai Fujikura, an LPO co-commission. The season’s commitment to new music culminates on 10 June 2027 with Debut Sounds, featuring five world premieres for solo voice and orchestra by the LPO Young Composers, mentored by Composer-in-Residence Sir George Benjamin.

Other highlights

The rest of the season showcases a roster of highly acclaimed conductors and world-class soloists. In October, Marie Jacquot scales the heights of Franck’s Symphony in D minor, joined by the sublime Kian Soltani for Dvořák’s Cello Concerto. Robin Ticciati brings operatic flair to an expanded LPO for Richard Strauss’s Ein Heldenleben, in a programme also featuring violinist Vilde Frang in Hindemith’s sardonic Kammermusik No. 4. The new year brings a vibrant focus on Northern and Eastern European masterworks, as Anja Bihlmaier leads Sibelius’s windswept First Symphony, and Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider conducts Tchaikovsky’s ‘Pathétique’ Symphony alongside Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with soloist Lukas Sternath.

Further guest appearances include Andrey Boreyko conducting Górecki’s haunting Symphony of Sorrowful Songs featuring award-winning soprano Iwona Sobotka. Kahchun Wong leads a high-voltage concert featuring Saint-Saëns’s ‘Organ’ Symphony with soloist Iveta Apkalna, while Thomas Guggeis is joined by Javier Perianes for Schumann’s Piano Concerto. Later in the spring, Cristian Măcelaru leads Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra and Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No. 1 with Zlatomir Fung, and Dima Slobodeniouk is joined by Kirill Gerstein for a rare performance of Beethoven’s early Piano Concerto No. 0. Award-winning violinist Bomsori joins Edward Gardner to perform Korngold’s Violin Concerto, and Jaime Martín conducts guitarist Rafael Aguirre in Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez, in a programme also featuring the Andalusian Flamenco Ballet. Finally, in a special LPO collaboration with Opera Rara, marking their 18th collaboration together following the award-winning 2022 revival of Offenbach’s La Princesse de Trébizonde, its Artistic Director Carlo Rizzi conducts Mercadante’s Il campo de’ crociati, starring acclaimed soprano Rosa Feola in music unheard for more than 150 years.

Residencies

The Orchestra is also resident at Brighton Dome, Eastbourne’s Congress Theatre and Saffron Walden’s Saffron Hall; these seasons have also been announced today. Highlights in October include conductor Marie Jacquot joined by cellist Kian Soltani for Dvořák’s Cello Concerto at Brighton Dome, and Tom Fetherstonhaugh conducting a programme in Eastbourne featuring Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto with soloist Ning Feng and Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade.

In March, audiences in both Brighton and Eastbourne will see conductor Alpesh Chauhan joined by pianist Sophia Liu for Saint-Saëns’s Piano Concerto No. 2. In April, Delyana Lazarova will conduct Felix Klieser in Strauss’s Horn Concerto No. 1 alongside Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony, again at both venues.

In November, Kellen Gray conducts violinist Elena Urioste in Price’s Violin Concerto No. 1 in Brighton, while Eastbourne audiences will be treated to LPO Principal Trumpet Tom Nielsen performing  Neruda’s Trumpet Concerto conducted by Adam Hickox, alongside music by Beethoven and Brahms. The season in Eastbourne also features concerts conducted by the LPO’s two 2026/27 Fellow Conductors: in January, Enyi Okpara conducts Laura van der Heijden in a Cello Concerto by Errollyn Wallen alongside works by Copland, Liadov and Sibelius; and in February Shira Samuels-Shragg is joined by LPO Principal Clarinet Benjamin Mellefont for a Valentine’s-themed programme of Spohr and Mendelssohn.

On the South Coast, the LPO continues to expand its work in the community through collaborations with Sussex Music Hub partners Create Music and West Sussex Music. The Orchestra continues to build deeper grassroots connections with local organisations such as AudioActive, Soundcastle and Carousel Chorus, while expanding its award-winning OrchLab programme to Bognor Regis, where it is also working with the Regis Centre, as well as extending its reach into Dover via Dover Library.

FUNharmonics Family Concerts

The LPO’s family concerts are the perfect way to introduce the youngest music-lovers to the exciting sounds of the Orchestra. During these hour-long concerts, a presenter weaves in audience interaction throughout, and images are projected on the big screen above the Orchestra, creating an engaging, multi-sensory experience. There is also an array of free activities in the foyer spaces before the concert, including lively interactive music sessions for all the family, and the chance to ‘Have a Go’ at orchestral instruments under expert instruction.

Across the 2026/27 season, the LPO will present three FUNharmonics family concerts at the Royal Festival Hall, each exploring the season’s central themes through participation and storytelling. On 23 January 2027, The Big Enigma sees presenter Rachel Leach and the Orchestra uncover the secret codes hidden within Elgar’s Enigma Variations and works by Beethoven, Bacewicz and Brahms. The series continues on 13 March 2027 with Beegu, as presenter Lucy Hollins and the Orchestra weave orchestral music through Alexis Deacon’s enchanting story of a lost creature’s search for friendship and belonging. The final concert on 5 June 2027, Rule-breakers and Risk-takers, celebrates musical heroes such as Tchaikovsky, Joseph Bologne and Ethel Smyth, honouring pioneering composers who have used music to battle barriers and persevere with purpose.

The LPO Showcase series shines a spotlight on the extraordinary talent and creativity supported by our Education and Community programme through a range of performances and events at the Royal Festival Hall, many of which are free to attend.

The LPO Junior Artists programme supports the progression of talented teenage musicians from backgrounds currently under-represented in professional UK orchestras. Junior Artists spend a season immersed in the LPO with mentorship from Orchestra members. This season celebrates the 10th anniversary of this trailblazing programme, and on 17 February 2027, Junior Artists past and present will perform alongside LPO musicians and Future Firsts in a vibrant celebration of young talent.

The LPO’s Future Firsts programme bridges the transition between education and the orchestral profession for 16 talented early-career musicians each year. On 27 February 2027, the current cohort joins forces with students from the Royal Academy of Music and LPO members for a thrilling free performance inspired by this season’s In Search of Purpose theme.

On 7 April 2027, members of Crisis UK – all adults who have experienced homelessness – perform original music devised with an LPO team during a week-long creative project. Crisis Creates aims to improve wellbeing and confidence through self-expression and collaboration, using the music of the Orchestra as a starting point for powerful new work, showcased in this free performance.

The LPO’s OrchLab programme, run in partnership with Drake Music, empowers adults with disabilities to experience the joy of music-making through workshops and accessible technology. The work culminates at OrchLab Festival Day on 18 November 2026 in the Clore Ballroom. This free but ticketed event for adults with disabilities and those who support them offers a joyful day of live music, accessible instrument demonstrations, and a showcase of the creativity of OrchLab participants.

The Showcase series also includes Debut Sounds on 10 June 2027 at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, featuring world premieres by this season’s LPO Young Composers. Mentored by Composer-in-Residence Sir George Benjamin, the five brilliant composers each debut a new work for solo voice and orchestra, performed by LPO members and Future First musicians.

Global reach

The London Philharmonic Orchestra reaches far beyond the concert hall, engaging a truly global audience through a diverse range of platforms. Performances from its London concerts are streamed internationally via Marquee TV, while its growing podcast series, Pitch me Classical, connects with listeners worldwide. The LPO Label recordings continue to attract a dedicated and expanding audience, and the Orchestra’s dynamic social media presence, with over 2 million followers, ensures it remains accessible and relevant to music lovers everywhere. Together, these channels give the Orchestra one of the broadest and most far-reaching audiences of any orchestra in the world.

Booking for LPO Members opens on Wednesday 22 April 2026 and general sale opens on Tuesday 28 April 2026: lpo.org.uk/whats-on