Edward Gardner

Edward Gardner has been Principal Conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra since September 2021.

He is also Chief Conductor of the Bergen Philharmonic, a position he will relinquish at the end of the 2023/24 season. From August 2024 he will become Music Director of the Norwegian Opera and Ballet, having been their Artistic Advisor since 2022.

Coming up with the LPO

In 2024/25 – his fourth season as Principal Conductor – Ed conducts nine LPO concerts at the Royal Festival Hall. He opens the season with Beethoven’s ‘Eroica’ Symphony and Berlioz’s The Death of Cleopatra with mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato on 25 September 2024, followed by performances with pianist Leif Ove Andsnes and violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja. Throughout the season he teams up with more superb soloists including Víkingur Ólafsson, Isabelle Faust and Augustin Hadelich, and presents 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 – an enormous end to the season.

In October 2024 he also leads the Orchestra on a major tour of the US with violin soloists Patricia Kopatchinskaja and Randall Goosby.

Recent highlights

During 2023/24 Ed conducted the LPO in ten concerts at the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, including the season-opener of Mahler’s ‘Resurrection’ Symphony. He toured with the Orchestra to South Korea and Taiwan, as well as 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; a reinvention of Szymanowski’s ballet Harnasie in collaboration with choreographer Wayne McGregor; Weill’s Seven Deadly Sins; and Mozart’s Mass in C minor. Other highlights with the Orchestra included Holst’s The Planets and Stravinsky’s Petrushka.

In February 2024 the LPO released on its own label a recording of Ed’s performance of Berlioz’s The Damnation of Faust with the Orchestra, recorded live in concert in February 2023.

In spring 2024 Ed and the LPO were the subject of a behind-the-scenes TV documentary series on Sky Arts: ‘Backstage with the London Philharmonic Orchestra’.

Supporting young talent

A passionate supporter of young talent, Edward Gardner founded the Hallé Youth Orchestra in 2002 and regularly conducts the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain. He has a close relationship with The Juilliard School of Music, and with the Royal Academy of Music who appointed him their inaugural Sir Charles Mackerras Conducting Chair in 2014.

Background

Born in Gloucester in 1974, Edward Gardner was educated at the University of Cambridge and the Royal Academy of Music. He went on to become Assistant Conductor of the Hallé and Music Director of Glyndebourne Touring Opera. His many accolades include being named Royal Philharmonic Society Award Conductor of the Year (2008), an Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Opera (2009) and an OBE for Services to Music in The Queen’s Birthday Honours (2012).

Edward Gardner’s position at the LPO is generously supported by Aud Jebsen.