Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra

The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra is a true cornerstone of our city’s vibrant cultural scene – and has been for a very long time. In fact, we’re the oldest continuing professional symphony orchestra in the UK, dating all the way back to 1840 when a group of Liverpool music lovers set up the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Society.  

Fast forward to today, and that group of music lovers has evolved into one of the most active, listened to, and celebrated orchestras out there, made up of 80 full-time musicians. Every season, we perform more than 100 concerts from our home, Liverpool Philharmonic Hall. And we're eager to shout about our city’s proud musical identity on the world stage through our tours of the UK, Asia, Europe and the USA. You’ll also see us appear live on TV, hear performances broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and Classic FM, and we reach millions of listeners around the globe on streaming platforms like Spotify. 

The Orchestra is led by a family of talented conductors, including our Chief Conductor Domingo Hindoyan, who we're sharing with LA Opera – from one west coast music city to another. With Domingo, our Conductor Laureate Vasily Petrenko and our Principal Guest Conductor Andrew Manze, we invite the biggest artists to our home in Liverpool. Our Orchestra regularly performs with superstar guest soloists including Sheku Kanneh-Mason, Víkingur Ólafsson, Sonya Yoncheva, Jennifer Johnston, Pacho Flores, Sir Bryn Terfel and Nobuyuki Tsujii – bringing the best to Liverpool and giving them the best acoustics and audience experience in return. 

We've got a long history, in fact our 190th anniversary is coming up in 2030. We’re proud to celebrate our musical heritage, but we're resolutely in tune with what’s coming next. We’re known for enabling our audiences to discover new music by some of the most exciting voices of today. We've commissioned and premiered hundreds of pieces in the last couple of decades, bringing major works by the likes of Sir Karl Jenkins, Eleanor Alberga and Dani Howard to the stage. We’re especially passionate about backing home-grown talent, working extensively with local composers such as Mark Simpson, Carmel Smickersgill and Nneka Cummins – and we like to be there right from the very start.   

We love doing all this because we firmly believe that orchestral music is for everyone. Whttps://www.liverpoolphil.com/about-us/our-impact/music-health#entry:51307@1:urle work to reach as many people as possible – of all ages, whether you’re a lifelong classical listener or not. We’ll continue working with our communities through our music education work, our Music and Health programmes and our emerging talent schemes. We’ll always play a truly diverse range of music. We deliver fun and escape, hope and joy. We’ll bring the best new sounds and experiences to our city and beyond. We’re proud to be Liverpool’s orchestra – and although we’ve been here for almost 200 years, we’re just getting started.