Edward Gardner conducts the Academy Symphony Orchestra

Edward Gardner conductor

First Violin
Charles Lovell-Jones
Harry Kneeshaw
Daniel Stroud
Christy Cheung
Briona Mannion
Radu Kis
José Cabrita Matias
Miles Ames
Ziyang Xiao
Qicong Lou
Laura Kim
Albert Kayedpour
Maximilian Jones-Lachman
Mikako Shimatani
Mitzi Gardner

Second Violin
Charlotte Spruit
Francisca de Brito
Matilde de Pinho
Olwen Miles
Ha Young Woo
Greta Maknickaite
Ang Li
Jordan Earnshaw
Yingzhi Zhang
Elisa De Rodrigues
Chloë Meade
Ioan-Octavian Pirlea
Shiqi Zheng
Jennifer Clare

Viola
Annie-May Page
Rachel Spence
Miguel Sobrinho
Luca Wadham
Hanako Dickinson
Jamie Howe
Emily Clark
Lukas Bowen
Melissa Doody
Hanae O'Neil
Sofía Jiménez Vallés
Athalie Armon-Jones

Cello
Samuel Vincent
George Wilkes
Jihyo Jung
Ellen Baumring-Gledhill
Dongjae Oh
Duo Liang
Yi Huang
Oona Lowther
Emilio Vargas
Jasmine Blackshaw-Britton

Double Bass
William Puhr
James Trowbridge
Kang Yao
Man Hon Marco Lee
Loukas Kerkyras
Ruohua Li
Charis Hadjisophocleous

Flute
Lucy Driver
Katie Taunton

Piccolo
Katie Taunton

Oboe
Eleanor Sullivan
Ellen Wilkinson

Cor anglais
Ellen Wilkinson

Clarinet
Lucia Porcedda
Robert Winup

Bass Clarinet
Robert Winup

Bassoon
Ruihan Kee
Ryan Delgado Barreiro

Contrabassoon
Ryan Delgado Barreiro

Horn
Annemarie Federle
Eleanor Blakeney
Alec Ross
Hannah Williams
Benjamin Hartnell-Booth

Trumpet
Holly Clark
John Vernon

Trombone
Meggie Murphy
Felix Rockhill

Bass Trombone
Jan Erik Kruijsse

Tuba
James Tavares

Timpani
Iolo Edwards

Percussion
Matthew Brett

Harp
Anwen Thomas

Piano
Mark Rogers

Celeste
Junyan Chen

'[…] ideology "acts" or "functions" in such a way that it "recruits" subjects among the individuals... or "transforms" the individuals into subjects... by that very precise operation which I have called interpellation or hailing, and which can be imagined along the lines of the most commonplace everyday police (or other) hailing: "Hey, you there!"

'Assuming that the theoretical scene I have imagined takes place in the street, the hailed individual will turn round. By this mere 180-degree physical conversion, he becomes a subject. Why? Because he has recognised that the hail was "really" addressed to him, and that "it was really him who was hailed" (and not someone else) […]'

Louis Althusser

Hailing is a short tone-poem dramatising the ‘theoretical scene’ described above by Louis Althusser, re-imagined as if those few seconds had been stretched out in super slow motion.

Joseph Howard


In recent years, there has been a significant renewal of interest in the work of Michael Tippett. Not only has Oliver Soden’s biography garnered many glowing reviews, but Edward Gardner chose to inaugurate his tenure as the new Principal Conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra with Tippett’s first opera, The Midsummer Marriage.

The Second Symphony was composed in the wake of this operatic success. At the time of its premiere in 1958, it had become notorious for a faltering premiere that required the conductor, Adrian Boult, to restart the performance live on BBC radio. While commonly attributed to a disagreement between Tippett’s notated phrasing for the violins and the leader of the BBC Symphony Orchestra’s reworking of it, Oliver Soden argues persuasively that it was an unfortunate mistake in the woodwind and Boult’s fast tempo that caused the unusual collapse.

Soden goes on to discuss how this was one of several incidents that caused Tippett to be considered (unfairly) by some as little more than an enthusiastic amateur. The subsequent success of the Second Symphony belies this, and it received praise from several of Tippett’s fellow composers, including Britten and Vaughan Williams, the latter writing just months before his death. Yet the spectre of the premiere remains, hanging unfairly over the work.

Like Britten, much of Tippett’s music reflects the influence of Baroque styles and rhythms. The pounding piano and string Cs which open the work were, according to the composer, inspired by Vivaldi. Further Baroque influence can be detected in the ground bass-inflected fantasia that forms the finale. The distinctive sonority of the celesta and piano colour several of Tippett’s works from the 1950s, although here there is threat in the air, perhaps foreshadowing the composer’s more astringent style of the following decade.

Anthony Chater

Edward Gardner began his tenure as Principal Conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra in September 2021; he is also Chief Conductor of the Bergen Philharmonic, a position he has held since October 2015.

During the 2021/22 season Edward will conduct the London Philharmonic Orchestra in 11concerts at the Royal Festival Hall, including five UK premieres. He opened the season with a concert performance of Tippett's The Midsummer Marriage, for which the London Philharmonic Choir was joined by the English National Opera Chorus. Other programmes during the season include Berlioz's 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 will open the Bergen Philharmonic season with a performance of John Adams's 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 will perform in Barcelona and Paris this season.

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. Return engagements included the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Montreal Symphony, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Philharmonia Orchestra and Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala di Milano. He also continued longstanding collaborations with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, where he was Principal Guest Conductor from 2010 to 2016, and the BBC Symphony Orchestra, which he has conducted at both the First and Last Night of the BBC Proms. 

Music Director of English National Opera for ten years (2006-15), 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, Covent Garden, where he made his debut in 2019 in a new production of Kátya 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, Den Norske Opera and Ballet, 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, where he was appointed 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).