80 years of recording music at Abbey Road … … including DreamWorks’ 3D animated film release Rise of the Guardians and the soundtracks to the Olympic and Paralympic ceremonies. The LSO has recorded some of the most iconic titles in film history at these hallowed studios, including the Star Wars films and scores to several Harry Potter titles.
100,000 audience members … … who come to our Barbican concerts every season. 2012 saw the LSO performing concerts as part of the 2012 Cultural Olympiad with Wynton Marsalis, Sir Simon Rattle and Gilberto Gil prior to the Olympics in July and August; a celebration for Sir Colin Davis on his 85th birthday; The 2012 Queen’s Medal for Music, which was awarded to the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain by Her Majesty the Queen; a five-part UBS Soundscapes: LSO Artist Portrait series with violinist Leonidas Kavakos; and two major composer residencies with John Adams and Mark-Anthony Turnage.
Plus international residencies, festivals and tours … … including our Principal Conductor, Valery Gergiev, taking the complete symphonies of both Brahms and Polish composer Karol Szymanowski around the globe. At the end of the 2012/13 season, the LSO’s four-year residency at the Aix-en-Provence festival also comes to a close. By that time, the Orchestra will have performed four 30-night run operas (Rigoletto, which we will recreate at the Barbican in September 2013, Don Giovanni, La clemenza di Tito and La Traviata) and many orchestral concerts in the Mediterranean city. The LSO also celebrated a century since its first tour to the United States in 1912, having nearly sailed on the ill-fated Titanic that April, changing to a different crossing at the last minute.
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