This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
Business News Industry People
Simon Rattle named Music Director of LSO
By Andy Malt | Published on Wednesday 4 March 2015
The London Symphony Orchestra has announced Simon Rattle as its new Music Director, luring him back from Germany, where he has been Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Berlin Philharmonic since 2002.
A longtime collaborator with the LSO, first conducting the orchestra in 1977, Rattle said of the announcement: “During my work with the LSO over the last years, I noticed that despite the orchestra’s long and illustrious history, they almost never refer to it. Instead, refreshingly, they talk about the future, what can they make anew, what can they improve, how can they reach further into the community”.
He continued: “In terms of musical excellence, it is clear that the sky’s the limit, but equally important, in terms of philosophy, they constantly strive to be a 21st century orchestra. We share a dream in which performing, teaching and learning are indivisible, with wider dissemination of our art at its centre. I cannot imagine a better or more inspiring way to spend my next years, and feel immensely fortunate to have the LSO as my musical family and co-conspirators”.
And if you thought the classical music industry was better than claiming to be “thrilled” in its press releases, you were wrong. LSO Chair Lennox Mackenzie screamed: “I am thrilled that Sir Simon Rattle has accepted our invitation to lead the orchestra into the future. On behalf of the whole orchestra, we welcome him as our Music Director at this hugely important moment in the LSO’s history”.
Rattle will take up his new role in September 2017. Which is ages and ages away. We’ll probably all be dead by then.
