Edward Gardner

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

In 2024 he became Music Director of the Norwegian Opera and Ballet, having been Artistic Advisor since 2022. He is also Honorary Conductor of the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, following his tenure as Chief Conductor.

2026/27 with the LPO

Ed opens the LPO’s new Royal Festival Hall season on 26 September 2026 with Britten’s War Requiem, featuring the London Philharmonic Choir and soloists Natalya Romaniw, Allan Clayton and Benjamin Appl. Other highlights include the world premiere of Mark Simpson’s Piano Concerto with Víkingur Ólafsson, paired with Stravinsky’s complete score for The Firebird, on 23 October 2026, and a semi-staged performance of Composer-in-Residence Sir George Benjamin’s acclaimed opera Lessons in Love and Violence at the Queen Elizabeth Hall on 25 November 2026. Ed also explores thrilling extremes with violinists Patricia Kopatchinskaja in Shostakovich (28 November 2026) and Pekka Kuusisto in Sibelius (24 February 2027), and returns to Tchaikovsky’s Manfred Symphony (21 October 2026).

Spring 2027 sees Ed lead a programme of Romantic works including Zemlinsky’s The Mermaid (7 April), as well as a rare performance of Schumann’s Das Paradies und die Peri (1o April). To celebrate the London Philharmonic Choir’s 80th anniversary, he conducts Fauré’s Requiem alongside music by Vaughan Williams and a world premiere by Dame Judith Weir (27 February). The season concludes on 24 April 2027 with Ed conducting Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius, again with the LPC.

2025/26

In 2025/26 Ed conducted ten LPO concerts at the Royal Festival Hall. Highlights included Mahler’s Symphony No. 4, Brahms’s Symphony No. 4 and Rachmaninov’s Symphony No. 3. He also led the London Philharmonic Choir and BBC Symphony Chorus in John Adams’s Harmonium, alongside Beethoven’s Violin Concerto with James Ehnes. In February 2026, Ed presented Phoenix Lands, a celebration of 20th-century Central European music spotlighting works by Bacewicz, Martinů, Lutosławski, Janáček, Bartók, Kaprálová and Szymanowski. Another standout programme, on 1 April 2026, included Mark-Anthony Turnage’s Three Screaming Popes, Bartók’s Violin Concerto No. 1 with Alina Ibragimova, and Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition.

On 26 November 2025, Ed took to the podium for a special concert dedicated to The Duke of Kent on the occasion of his 90th birthday and the 45th anniversary of his Patronage of the LPO.

Recordings and TV

Edward Gardner’s recording on the LPO’s own label of Tippett’s The Midsummer Marriage, captured live at his first concert as Principal Conductor in 2021, won a 2023 Gramophone Award for Best Opera Recording. February 2024 saw the release of Berlioz’s The Damnation of Faust, recorded in concert in 2023. A second Tippett disc was released in November 2024, and a Rachmaninov release  followed in May 2025. Later in 2025 came an album of Dvořák & Schumann works, a Britten compilation, and Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius, recorded live at the 2022 BBC Proms.

June 2026 will see Ed’s next release on the LPO Label: Strauss’s Alpine Symphony and Metamorphosen, recorded live at the Royal Festival Hall.

In 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’, which was nominated for a 2025 BAFTA Award and is still available to watch on Now TV.

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.