Edward Gardner

Conductor Edward Gardner is Principal Conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Chief Conductor of the Bergen Philharmonic, a position he will relinquish at the end of the 2023/24 season. From August 2024 Edward will undertake the Music Directorship of the Norwegian National Opera and Ballet (DNO&B), commencing the role of Artistic Advisor in February 2022.

During the 2021/22 season, Edward will conduct the London Philharmonic Orchestra in eleven concerts at the Royal Festival Hall, including five UK premieres. He opened the season on 25 September 2021 with a concert performance of Tippett The Midsummer Marriage, where the London Philharmonic Choir was joined by the English National Opera Chorus. Other programmes during the season include Berlioz' Symphonie fantastique, Bartók's Bluebeard’s Castle and Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde. Edward and the LPO will also take part in the Enescu Festival in Bucharest as well as undertaking an extensive tour of Germany.

Edward opened the Bergen Philharmonic season with a performance of Adams Harmonium. Further highlights include an all-Stravinsky programme and new commissions by Thomas Larcher, Ryan Wigglesworth and Rebecka Ahvenniemi. Following recent tours to Berlin, Munich, Amsterdam and at the BBC Proms and Edinburgh International Festival, the orchestra has several European tours planned for the coming seasons. Edward is also Chief Conductor of the Edvard Grieg Choir (EGK) and will conduct at least 2 concert productions each season in the period 2021-24.

In demand as a guest conductor, the previous two seasons saw Edward debut with the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic and Wiener Symphoniker; while returns included engagements with the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Montreal Symphony, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the Philharmonia Orchestra and Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala di Milano. He also continued his longstanding collaborations with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, where he was Principal Guest Conductor from 2010-16, and the BBC Symphony Orchestra, whom he has conducted at both the First and Last Night of the BBC Proms. Music Director of English National Opera for eight years (2007-15), Edward has an ongoing relationship with New York’s Metropolitan Opera where he has conducted productions of La damnation de Faust, Carmen, Don Giovanni, Der Rosenkavalier and Werther. In London, he has future plans with the Royal Opera House where he made his debut in 2019 in a new production of Káťa Kabanová and returned for Werther the following season.

The 2021/22 season will see Edward make his debut with Bayerische Staatsoper in a new production of Peter Grimes. Elsewhere, he has conducted at La Scala, Chicago Lyric Opera, Glyndebourne Festival Opera and Opéra National de Paris. A passionate supporter of young talent, Edward 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. Born in Gloucester in 1974,

Edward was educated at 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 receiving an OBE for Services to Music in the Queen’s Birthday Honours (2012).