London Symphony Orchestra
Resident Orchestra
![Official photo of the London Symphony Orchestra](/sites/default/files/styles/hero_constrained_small/public/images/2024-01/LSO-Orchestra-Photo-2022-C-John-Davis-%28web2%29.jpg?itok=8Do7p4Q5)
The London Symphony Orchestra is built on the belief that extraordinary music should be available to everyone, everywhere. It was established in 1904 and today is among the world’s top orchestras
As Resident Orchestra at the Barbican since the Centre opened, it performs some 50 concerts here every year, under the batons of a family of conductors that includes Chief Conductor Designate Sir Antonio Pappano, Conductor Emeritus Sir Simon Rattle, Principal Guest Conductors Gianandrea Noseda and François-Xavier Roth, Conductor Laureate Michael Tilson Thomas and Associate Artists Barbara Hannigan and André J Thomas.
Events
![Nicola Benedetti close up landscape playing violin](/sites/default/files/styles/event_listing_small/public/images/2018-01/Nicola%20Benedetti%20Headshot%206%20Simon%20Fowler.jpg?h=2d241d63&itok=vChI5YAW)
London Symphony Orchestra/Harding & Benedetti
Nicola Benedetti and Daniel Harding bring together a kaleidoscopic musical travelogue, across Europe and the ocean beyond.
![Viola soloist Antoine Tamestit](/sites/default/files/styles/event_listing_small/public/images/2019-02/200605_Tamestit.jpg?itok=t9Ub4JtO)
London Symphony Orchestra/Rattle & Tamestit
In the first concert of his Artist Portrait, viola player extraordinaire Antoine Tamestit champions Martinů’s rarely-heard Rhapsody-Concerto – and Sir Simon Rattle conducts Shostakovich.
![Sir Simon Rattle with London Symphony Orchestra](/sites/default/files/styles/event_listing_small/public/images/2021-06/SSR_Barbican_1920_1080.jpg?h=c2e46691&itok=SKbX4OpB)
London Symphony Orchestra/Rattle
Sir Simon Rattle takes a journey of discovery around Bruckner’s magnificent ‘Romantic’ symphony – including music that has never been performed by a professional orchestra in the UK.
![Sir Simon Rattle with Magdalena Kožená](/sites/default/files/styles/event_listing_small/public/images/2021-06/LSO-Rattle-Mahler-_1920_1080.jpg?itok=9BrtTj6b)
London Symphony Orchestra/Rattle & Magdalena Kožená
Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony finds its 21st-century counterpart, as Sir Simon Rattle and Magdalena Kozena give the UK premiere of Ondřej Adámek’s Where Are You?
![Sir Simon Rattle with London Symphony Orchestra](/sites/default/files/styles/event_listing_small/public/images/2021-06/SSR_Barbican_1920_1080.jpg?h=c2e46691&itok=SKbX4OpB)
LSO/Rattle Half Six Fix: Beethoven 6
A different way to experience the LSO, with introductions to the music from the conductor, a relaxed atmosphere, and digital programme notes.
![Sir Simon Rattle with London Symphony Orchestra](/sites/default/files/styles/event_listing_small/public/images/2021-06/SSR_Barbican_1920_1080.jpg?h=c2e46691&itok=SKbX4OpB)
London Symphony Orchestra/Rattle: New Music Britain
Tradition is about the present – and the future – as well as the past. Sir Simon Rattle opens the LSO's new season with a concert that spans over 100 years of British music.
![Nicola Benedetti](/sites/default/files/styles/event_listing_small/public/images/2019-07/CF023801Nicola-Bendetti_%28c%29-Andy-Gotts_wide.jpg?h=0bd78766&itok=b9VxDk4s)
London Symphony Orchestra/LSO Futures NB Change of event
Music is constantly evolving and endlessly intriguing, as living legend Betsy Jolas well knows, and her Well Met Suite is 'music about music, and the life of music'.
![Michael Tilson Thomas](/sites/default/files/styles/event_listing_small/public/images/2019-07/MTT-1718-by-Spencer-Lowell_1920x1080.jpg?h=7a2c7a05&itok=dXPQlEDv)
London Symphony Orchestra/Michael Tilson Thomas & Yuja Wang
Yuja Wang plays Shostakovich’s Second Piano Concerto and Michael Tilson Thomas conducts Tchaikovsky. Big personalities for big pieces.
![Yuja Wang playing pinao](/sites/default/files/styles/event_listing_small/public/images/2019-01/2019-11-22%20Yuja%20Wang%20%C2%A9%20Peter%20Adamik.jpg?h=e6e622b7&itok=jELeBj8P)
London Symphony Orchestra/MTT & Yuja Wang
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Yuja Wang and Michael Tilson Thomas: two names that speak for themselves, in Rachmaninov’s hugely popular Second Piano Concerto. Much more than just a brief encounter …
London Symphony Orchestra/Sir Simon Rattle
Innocence, experience and simply fabulous sounds. Sir Simon Rattle conducts a concert of music that showcases the LSO at its most dazzling, and its most delicate.
![Andrew Staples, Sir Simon Rattle and Magdalena Kozena's sillhouettes in front of the Barbican tower outline with radio waves emitting from it](/sites/default/files/styles/event_listing_small/public/images/2021-03/Das%20Lied%20von%20der%20Erde.jpg?h=eba629ac&itok=gg8GdxPM)
LSO/Rattle: Das Lied von der Erde
Contemplate the brief, boundless joy of life and the looming spectre of death in Mahler’s hugely poignant song cycle – a work every bit as epic in size and scope as his monumental symphonies.
Discover
![London Symphony Orchestra](/sites/default/files/styles/discover_small/public/images/2018-08/lso_notext.jpg?itok=bHlYecEZ)
Profile: London Symphony Orchestra
Listen to our selection of LSO recordings from across the years in our Spotify playlist.
![Peter Moore playing trombone](/sites/default/files/styles/discover_small/public/images/2018-07/Screen%20Shot%202018-07-26%20at%2009.39.17.png?itok=w-j2WzF0)
Barbican Sessions: Peter Moore
London Symphony Orchestra’s young trombonist, Peter Moore, performs 'Doolallynastics – a brief torture for solo trombone’ by Brian Lynn in our latest Barbican Session, filmed in one of our Frobisher Auditoriums.