Currently head of the Berlin Philharmonic, Rattle will take up the reins in 2017.

The London Symphony Orchestra has announced that Sir Simon Rattle will be its next Music Director. Rattle will take up his post in September 2017 and fill the breach left by the current Principal Conductor Valery Gergiev who departs at the end of 2015.

“During my work with the LSO over the last years, I noticed that despite the Orchestra’s long and illustrious history, they almost never refer to it,” Sir Simon said on the announcement of his appointment. “Instead, refreshingly, they talk about the future, what can they make anew, what can they improve, how can they reach further into the community. In terms of musical excellence, it is clear that the sky’s the limit, but equally important, in terms of philosophy, they constantly strive to be a twenty-first century orchestra. We share a dream in which performing, teaching and learning are indivisible, with wider dissemination of our art at its centre. I cannot imagine a better or more inspiring way to spend my next years, and feel immensely fortunate to have the LSO as my musical family and co-conspirators.”

The appointment of Sir Simon, whose first appearance with the London Symphony Orchestra was in 1977, at the age of 22, is not entirely news. He had previously announced that he would be leaving the Berlin Philharmonic, where he has been Chief Conductor since 2002, at the end of the 2018 season. He had also been widely tipped for a return to the UK and the LSO job was the most obvious candidate. However, Rattle and his wife the mezzo-soprano Magdalena Kožená have indictaed that with three children of ten years and under, they are unlikely to be moving the family from Berlin.

His choice of the title ‘Music Director’, however, is interesting and indicative of his commitment to the orchestra, and music in the UK in general, above and beyond simple programming decisions. Sir Simon is a passionate advocate for the arts and young people and has indicated that he will be involved in every aspect of the LSO’s work as well as championing the importance of music and education.

Outlining his vision for universal access to music and putting children and young people at its heart, Rattle calls for new standards in making world-class music available to all. It is his belief that every musician should be engaged in composing, improvising, mentoring and performing and that the creation of new music will be central to that process. He plans to work with leading composers and teachers in order to achieve this.

Kathryn McDowell, Managing Director of the LSO, was clearly delighted. “This is the realisation of a dream, to bring Simon Rattle back to his home country to lead the extraordinary musicians of the LSO,” she said. “We look forward to a new chapter of ambitious music-making that reaches deep into the communities we serve and touches people’s lives with the power of music.”

During the Berlin Philharmonic’s recent residency in London, Rattle showed a little of hand when he took the opportunity to lobby fiercely for a new concert hall for the UK capital to supplement and improve upon the acoustic of the three main orchestral venues, the refurbished Royal Festival Hall, the LSO’s home at the Barbican Centre and the Royal Albert Hall. That suggestion sparked a fierce debate in the media with many arguing that spending could be better prioritised. Leading politicians, however, were more positive with UK Chancellor George Osborne and London Mayor Boris Johnson both backing Rattle’s call to arms.

A popular figure in British music since his trailblazing days with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (whose concert hall, opened under Rattle’s tenure, in is widely regarded as the best acoustic in Britain), Simon Rattle hit the world’s television screens in 2012 conducting the LSO at the opening ceremony of London Olympics, performing Chariots of Fire alongside Rowan Atkinson.

The London Symphony Orchestra was founded in 1904 and is London’s oldest symphony orchestra. It was set up by a group of disgruntled musicians from Henry Wood’s Queen’s Hall Orchestra who didn’t like the rules that were being brought in regarding who else they were allowed play for. Previous Principal Conductors have included André Previn, Michael Tilson Thomas, Sir Colin Davis and Valery Gergiev.