London Symphony Orchestra

London's oldest orchestra

The London Symphony Orchestra was founded in 1904 by the horn players Adolf Borsdorf, Thomas Busby and Henri van der Meerschen and the trumpeter John Solomon, who left Henry Wood's Queen's Hall Orchestra after a ban on deputies. It gave its first concert on June 9, 1904 at Queen's Hall under Hans Richter, toured Britain under Elgar in 1905 and abroad in 1906, premiered Vaughan Williams's Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis in 1910, and made its first gramophone recordings in 1912 under Arthur Nikisch, followed by a Columbia contract in 1920. Its first film score was Bliss's Things to Come in 1935, and it has made more than 200 since, including Star Wars in 1977 and Superman in 1978. It claims to be the world's most recorded orchestra.

It has been resident at the Barbican since 1982, runs LSO St Luke's, opened in 2003, and launched its own label, LSO Live, in 2000. Clive Gillinson was managing director from 1984 to 2004 and Kathryn McDowell from 2005; she announced in June 2025 that she would step down in July 2026. Its conductors have included Richter, Elgar, Nikisch, Beecham, Mengelberg, Harty and Andre Previn, whose BBC series Music Night ran from 1971 to 1977. In summer 2020 the orchestra recorded strings for Promises at AIR Studios in London during the pandemic.