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Founded in 1904 and therefore the oldest of the city's symphony orchestras, the London Symphony Orchestra became world-renowned for recordings that date back to early gramophone records in 1912. Amid decades of diverse classical programming that followed, including performances for radio and TV, the orchestra also became known for its appearances in numerous film scores, including the Star Wars series. The LSO also tours and first visited North America in 1912 (narrowly avoiding passage on the Titanic).

The ensemble's direct antecedent was the Queen's Hall Orchestra, formed in 1895 for conductor Henry Wood's series of Promenade Concerts. The summer series was so successful that a series of weekly Sunday afternoon concerts was established the same year. The orchestra, however, had never become a permanent group; its members could and often did send other musicians to substitute for them at concerts. In 1904, Wood attempted to end this practice, prompting 46 members to leave and form their own orchestra.

The London Symphony Orchestra was organized as a self-governing corporation administered by a board selected by the players. They arranged for the great Hans Richter to conduct the inaugural concert, and continued to engage a variety of conductors, practically introducing the concept of the guest conductor to the London musical scene. Soon, though, the title and post of principal conductor was established for Richter. The LSO's connection with the BBC goes back to 1924 when Ralph Vaughan Williams conducted the orchestra in the premiere broadcast performance of his Pastoral Symphony. It was the unofficial orchestra in residence for the BBC until the formation of the BBC Symphony in 1930 and continued to broadcast concerts and provide background music for many BBC productions. Other conductors most associated with the orchestra's first few decades include Edward Elgar and Thomas Beecham. During World War II, Wood was welcomed for a series of concerts.

The War took its toll on orchestra membership as it had the general populace, and a concurrent drop in private funding led to increased reliance on the state arts council. This eventually led to structural reorganization in the 1950s, resulting in increased professional standards and the abandonment of profit-sharing; players became salaried employees. The revamped orchestra made only its second tour of the United States in 1963 (the first had been in 1912), and in 1964 embarked on its first world tour. In the mid-1960s the city of London broke ground for the Barbican Arts Centre, intended as the LSO's permanent home. The building was an architectural and acoustic success, and since 1982 has provided the orchestra the solid base it lacked during the first 70-plus years of its existence. The venue opened under principal conductor Claudio Abbado, who took over for André Previn in 1979.

In the meantime, the orchestra made its Star Wars debut, performing John Williams' score for the original 1977 film. While the organization had recorded its first film score in 1935 (H.G. Wells' Things to Come) and appeared in such classics as The Bridge on the River Kwai, Doctor Zhivago, and The Sound of Music, Star Wars won three Grammys, an Academy Award, and a BAFTA, among many other accolades, sold over a million copies in the U.S. and over 100,000 in the U.K., and endures as a touchstone in modern film music. The LSO went on to record music for the franchise's entire first two trilogies as well as films like 1981's Raiders of the Lost Ark, 1993's Schindler's List, 1997's Titanic, and select installments of the Harry Potter series.

During the tenure of Colin Davis, who was named principal conductor in 1995, the LSO established its own record label, LSO Live. Dvorák's Symphony No. 9, recorded at Barbican Centre in 1999 and released in 2000, bears catalog number 0001. Their 2000 recording of Berlioz's Les Troyens won two Grammys in 2002, and Verdi's Falstaff took home the Best Opera Grammy in 2006. In 2007, Davis took the position of orchestra president, its first since Leonard Bernstein's passing in 1990, and Valery Gergiev became principal conductor.

Also known for crossing over into rock, jazz, and Broadway, among other categories, they followed hit recordings such as Symphonic Rolling Stones and Gershwin Fantasy (with Joshua Bell) with albums like 2017's Someone to Watch Over Me, which had them accompanying archival recordings of Ella Fitzgerald. ~ Marcy Donelson, Joseph Stevenson & Corie Stanton Root

Michael Tilson Thomas is among the most famous American-born conductors, best known as the longtime conductor of the San Francisco Symphony. He has a bright, extroverted personality and a wide-ranging repertoire that allows him to take a place at the forefront of experimentation with the form and content of symphonic concerts, combining his eclectic style with various American music styles. He is also a respected composer, with his You Come Here Often?, for solo piano being featured on Yuja Wang's 2023 album The American Project.

Tilson Thomas was born in Los Angeles on December 12, 1944. He was musically influenced by his family: his grandparents were Boris and Bessie Thomaschevsky, founders of New York's Yiddish Theater, and his father Ted Thomas was an avid amateur pianist and worked in films and television. He studied piano at the University of Southern California with John Crown and conducting and composing with Ingolf Dahl. At the age of 19, he was named the music director of the Young Musicians Foundation Orchestra and accompanied master classes by Jascha Heifetz and Gregor Piatigorsky. Tilson Thomas became the assistant conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1969 after winning the Koussevitzky Prize at Tanglewood.

On October 22, 1969, he was called to replace William Steinberg during a Carnegie Hall concert, repeating the circumstances of Leonard Bernstein's sensational debut 26 years earlier with nearly identical results: Tilson Thomas was catapulted into the top ranks of American conductors. In 1970, he was appointed the associate conductor of the Boston Symphony and then principal guest conductor until 1974. He served as the music director of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra (1971-1979), principal guest conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic (1981-1985), and principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra (1988-1995). In 1987, recognizing a need for music graduates to gain experience, he created the New World Symphony in Miami Beach; he served as the group's artistic director from its creation until 2022.

Tilson Thomas has also spent time composing, writing From the Diary of Anne Frank on commission from UNICEF in 1990 (the premiere was narrated by actress Audrey Hepburn). In 1995, he was commissioned by Hiroshima, Japan, to write Shówa/Shoáh for the 50th anniversary of the bombing of the city. That year, Tilson Thomas was appointed as the 11th music director of the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. Upon taking the post with the San Francisco Symphony, he became the principal guest conductor of the London Symphony. Together, he and the San Francisco Symphony went on international tours, won a 1997 Grammy Award for their recording of Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet, created the cross-platform educational program Keeping Score, and launched their own label in 2001, where many of Tilson Thomas' recordings with the orchestra have been released. Among these is one of Mahler's Symphony No. 5, which was issued in 2006.

In 2016, Tilson Thomas was named conductor laureate of the London Symphony, and the following year, he announced his retirement at the end of the 2019-2020 season. He led the San Francisco Symphony on a complete cycle of Robert Schumann's symphonies in 2017. In 2020, he led the orchestra on a recording of his From the Diary of Anne Frank and Meditations on Rilke. Due to the coronavirus pandemic that year, the San Francisco Symphony's planned farewell festivities to conclude Tilson Thomas' tenure were re-organized as a 25-day online celebration. He took the post of music director laureate and led the orchestra for several weekends a season. Tilson Thomas was diagnosed with brain cancer in 2021; he subsequently underwent surgery and treatment. He continued to conduct and compose, and in 2023, his solo piano work, You Come Here Often?, was included on Yuja Wang's Grammy-winning album The American Project. Tilson Thomas retired from conducting due to health concerns after a performance in January of 2024. He led Mahler's Fifth Symphony in his final concert, bookending his career with the San Francisco Symphony with the same composer he also conducted in his 1974 debut.

Tilson Thomas is a Chevalier dans l'ordre des Arts et des Lettres of France. In 2009, he received the National Medal of Arts, the highest artistic award given in the United States, and in 2019, he received the Kennedy Center Honor. He has won 12 Grammy Awards in several categories, including Best Orchestral Performance and Best Classical Album. ~ TiVo Staff