London Chamber Orchestra

Patron HRH The Duchess of Cornwall
President Vladimir Ashkenazy

Music Director & Principal Conductor
Christopher Warren-Green

Artistic Director & Concertmasters
Rosemary Furniss and Vasko Vassilev

Composer in Residence
Graham Fitkin

It is the absolute passion, energy and enthusiasm of every one of its members that marks LCO out as a sensational orchestra.

London is a city blessed with more fine professional orchestras than any other city in the world. What’s different about the London Chamber Orchestra?

Our difference is founded on independence – LCO does not seek or receive public subsidy.  Our independence helps us foster the unique personality and character with which our performances are infused. We depend for our existence on the enthusiasm of our audiences and on the support of a long line of distinguished and enlightened corporate and individual sponsors and donors.

Our difference is supported by our long-standing willingness to embrace the new – LCO has given more than 100 UK premieres, including works from Mozart to Graham Fitkin.  LCO premièred Sir Peter Maxwell Davies’s The Golden Rule, written to mark The Queen’s 80th birthday, and in 2008 gave the London première of Hess’s Concerto for Piano and Orchestra commissioned by The Prince of Wales. LCO’s 09/10 season will include our commission and world première performance of LCO Composer in Residence Graham Fitkin’s Piano Concerto. We also choose to work enthusiastically with the brightest young stars in music when inviting our soloists and guest artists, and also when selecting new members of the orchestra.

Ours is a difference that’s rooted in tradition – LCO is the longest established professional chamber orchestra in the UK, founded in 1921 by Anthony Bernard, and premiering at the London home of Viscountess Nancy Astor. Recognition for the orchestra has also included invitations to perform at Buckingham Palace from HRH The Prince of Wales and for HM The Queen at Kew Palace in April 2006 and more recently Clarence House for LCO’s Patron HRH The Duchess of Cornwall.

Our difference is recognised not just in our London residency and highly popular annual season at St. John’s, Smith Square, but increasingly around the UK and the world with sell-out concerts in La Scala, Milan and Vienna’s Musikverein and critically acclaimed tours to the USA, Far East and Europe.

But above all, you can see what’s different about LCO in the faces of our musicians – every one of whom has been selected from the finest professional musicians the UK has to offer – faces which radiate the passion, enthusiasm, commitment, vigour, intensity, exuberance, freshness, inspiration and a sheer sense of enjoyment that pervade our performances and in our recordings on the LCO Live label in partnership with Signum Classics.