London Symphony Orchestra: Online Concert Programme | Sat 24 Oct 2026

Sir Antonio Pappano
Conductor

One of today’s most sought-after conductors, Sir Antonio Pappano is renowned for his charismatic leadership and inspiring performances across both symphonic and operatic repertoires. He is Chief Conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra, and Conductor Laureate of the Royal Opera and Ballet Covent Garden and Music Director Emeritus of the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, having held the position of Music Director at both institutions from 2002-2024 and 2005-2023 respectively. Pappano was appointed Music Director of Oslo’s Den Norske Opera in 1990, and from 1992-2002 served as Music Director of the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels. From 1997-1999 he was Principal Guest Conductor of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.

Pappano is in demand as an opera conductor at the highest international level, including with the Metropolitan Opera New York, the State Operas of Vienna and Berlin, the Bayreuth and Salzburg Festivals, Lyric Opera of Chicago and the Teatro alla Scala, and has appeared as a guest conductor with many of the world’s most prestigious orchestras, including the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonic Orchestras, the Staatskapelle Dresden, the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, the Bavarian Radio, the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestre de Paris and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, as well as the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, Chicago and Boston Symphonies, the Philadelphia and Cleveland Orchestras. He maintains a particularly strong relationship with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe.

Highlights of the 2026/27 season and beyond include the final instalment of the acclaimed new Ring Cycle at the Royal Opera and Ballet, with a new production of Götterdämmerung and, in the spring of 2027, a production of La Gioconda, also at the Royal Opera and Ballet.

In his third season as Chief Conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra, he will undertake two wide-ranging international tours; one in China and Japan, plus a major tour of the US, including two concerts at Carnegie Hall in New York. In addition to the concerts at the Barbican centre with the LSO, in which he will focus on major German and Russian repertoire including performances of Mahler’s ‘Resurrection’ Symphony, Bruckner’s 9th Symphony, Shostakovich’s 8th Symphony and Scriabin’s 4th Symphony, he will also conduct five newly commissioned works. Maestro Pappano will also continue with the cycle of Vaughan Williams symphonies, which he is recording for LSO live. In addition to his tours and concerts with the LSO, Maestro Pappano will return for a European tour with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and also for concerts with the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia.

Sheku Kanneh-Mason
Cello

Cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason’s mission is to make music accessible to all, whether that’s performing for children in a school hall, at an underground club, or in the world’s leading concert venues.

In November 2025, Sheku gave the world premiere of Edmund Finnis’s Cello Concerto, which was written for him, with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Roberto González-Monjas. He gives further performances of this work with the Dresden Philharmonic and Melbourne Symphony orchestras, and the London Symphony Orchestra under Sir Antonio Pappano, in the 26/27 season. He made his much-anticipated debut in August 2026 with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and Simone Young at the Sydney Opera House playing the Elgar Cello Concerto, for which he received outstanding reviews.  Exactly 10 years since he won the BBC Young Musician, he returned to the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall in September 2026 with his competition peers Jess Gillam and Benjamin Goldscheider where they perform a newly commissioned work by Gwilym Simcock, a Triple Concerto, with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Sakari Oramo. Further performances are scheduled in Sofia, Birmingham, and Antwerp.

Sheku continues to work with some of the most exciting orchestras and conductors; highlights of the 26/27 season include performances with Rotterdam Philharmonic and Bar Avni, Danish National Symphony with Leonidas Kavakos, Polish National Radio Symphony and Marin Alsop, Pittsburgh Symphony and Manfred Honeck, Toronto Symphony and Gustavo Gimeno, and Sinfonia of London and John Wilson.

He returns to the Amsterdam Cello Biennale with the Residentie Orkest and Jonathan Bloxham in November 2026 and then in December 2026, performs Saint-Saëns’s first Cello Concerto with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and Semyon Bychkov. As part of the same visit, Sheku and musicians of the orchestra play the first concert adaptation of his own delightful book for young children Little Sheku and the Animal Orchestra.  In May 2027, Sheku embarks upon a European and North American duo tour with celebrated pianist Benjamin Grosvenor, with whom he recorded his 2024 album of the Beethoven Triple Concerto.

In 2027 Sheku returns to Antigua, where he has family connections, as an ambassador for the Antigua and Barbuda Youth Symphony Orchestra and before then is honoured to perform for the Commonwealth Heads of Government gala evening in November 2026, also in Antigua.

A Decca Classics recording artist, Sheku released Shostakovich & Britten in May 2025, featuring Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No. 2, performed with John Wilson and the Sinfonia of London, alongside the cello sonatas of Shostakovich and Britten, which he recorded with Isata Kanneh-Mason. September 2025 saw the release of the second Kanneh-Mason family album, River of Music, also on Decca Classics. Sheku’s 2022 album, Song, showcased his innately lyrical playing in a wide range of arrangements and collaborations, and his 2020 album Elgar reached No. 8 in the overall Official UK Album Chart, making him the first ever cellist to reach the UK Top 10. Sheet music collections of his performance repertoire along with his own arrangements and compositions are published by Faber.  He will release his ninth album on Decca Classics later in 2026.

Sheku is a graduate of London’s Royal Academy of Music where he studied with Hannah Roberts and in May 2022 he was appointed as the Academy’s first Menuhin Visiting Professor of Performance Mentoring. In 2024 he accepted the role as patron of UK Music Masters and remains an ambassador for both Breakthrough T1D and Future Talent. Sheku was appointed a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2020 New Year’s Honours List. After winning the BBC Young Musician competition in 2016, Sheku’s performance at the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex at Windsor Castle in 2018 was watched by two billion people worldwide. He is the author of two books, both published by Penguin Random House in 2025, a memoir entitled The Power of Music and the aforementioned Little Sheku and the Animal Orchestra. He plays a Matteo Goffriller cello from 1700 which is on indefinite loan to him.

shekukannehmason.com

London Symphony Orchestra

The London Symphony Orchestra believes that extraordinary music is for everyone, everywhere. It’s a belief rooted in creativity, collaboration and determination – values that have shaped the LSO since 1904, when a group of musicians set out to create and run an orchestra of their own.

Since then, generations of remarkable talents have built the LSO’s world-renowned reputation for excellence, innovation and sharing the joy of music. The Orchestra performs a wide-ranging repertoire in front of nearly 200,000 people every year, commissions composers to push new boundaries, and connects with millions more online through creative collaborations, and education and community programmes.

In London, the LSO has been the Resident Orchestra at the Barbican since its opening, performing around 70 concerts each year. These performances feature the LSO’s internationally recognised artists: Chief Conductor Sir Antonio Pappano, Conductor Emeritus Sir Simon Rattle, Principal Guest Conductor Gianandrea Noseda, and Associate Artists Barbara Hannigan and André J Thomas. Further afield, major residencies and tours take the Orchestra to audiences around the world.

LSO Discovery, the Orchestra’s education and community programme, is about changing lives through music. Each year, the LSO connects with more than 60,000 people through workshops, events and performances – opening doors for performers and communities from every background. LSO musicians are at the heart of the programme. Alongside performing, they lead workshops, mentor emerging instrumentalists, composers and conductors, and shape the programme, sharing their expertise. Much of this happens at LSO St Luke’s, the LSO’s venue and LSO Discovery’s home on London’s Old Street – an open, welcoming space where anyone can experience live music and get involved. The LSO’s record company, LSO Live, is one of the largest independent classical labels. With over 200 recordings – including Grammy-winning and critically acclaimed albums – it combines a musician-led approach with digital innovation. These performances reach millions of people every month through streaming, radio and on-demand services.

For over a century, the LSO has been the orchestral power behind moments that define global culture. We’ve recorded music for iconic films, video games, theme parks – and albums in almost every genre, including Rosalía’s Lux, RAYE’s This Music May Contain Hope, and the Floating Points and Pharoah Sanders album Promises.

The LSO wants to continue to inspire, connect and belong to everyone – now and for generations to come. We’re able to keep sharing extraordinary music with the world thanks to the generosity of our supporters: the City of London Corporation, Arts Council England, our corporate supporters, trusts and foundations, and individual donors.

lso.co.uk