LSO Director Kathryn McDowell shares vision for the future of one of the world’s most prestigious orchestras

By Jennifer Reason

Brought up in Northern Ireland, Kathryn McDowell has spent her entire career fostering arts education in communities and organizations across the United Kingdom. Throughout the last 40 years she has worked with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, the Welsh National Opera, the Arts Council of England and the Association of British Orchestras. 

McDowell has been the Managing Director of the London Symphony Orchestra since 2005. In that time, she has overseen an extension of international partnerships for the orchestra around the world as well as the development of LSO Live, their incredibly successful orchestra owned recording label. And with the challenges of a global pandemic, the orchestra found a way to flourish through digital online recordings and performances; a concept that has brought them an even wider audience.

Kathryn McDowell is also the chair of the London Lieutenancy Council for Cultural Heritage. Their mission is to “build bridges across London's most deprived communities through cultural activities.” Youth education has always been at the heart of McDowell’s mission. 

The LSO is currently on tour in the United states, with a selection of pieces that embrace their history as well as continue to innovate. Among their schedule of concerts is a stop right here in northern California, at the Mondavi Center at UC Davis.

Midday Classical host Jennifer Reason recently sat down with McDowell to discuss her vision for the future of the orchestra as well as their upcoming program. 

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Interview highlights 

On what it means to be Managing Director

In the U.K, the managing director tends to hold a responsibility for both the business side, but also the artistic side, liaising with the various conductors and artists as well as keeping the whole business and commercial side of the company in good shape.

On embracing both digital and live aspects of performance

The thing is that with the LSO, when they decide to do something, they do it wholeheartedly. I remember immediately after the pandemic talking to people about a hybrid future, that we would need to embrace both elements, the digital and the live. It’s really interesting to see that coming into being that we can develop audiences in new territories through the digital and then go as a live orchestra. 

On staying relevant in today’s age

I think in any business context you have to stay ahead of the curve. Nobody owes you a living, and so it’s the responsibility of the management to really be sure that they’re staying relevant and focused, and that they’re always looking at how they look after their existing audiences and how they can develop new ones. It has to be about excellence and innovation. The other thing about the LSO is that our musicians are absolutely at the heart of the board of the organization. We have 9 playing directors on the board and 8 non-playing directors, including me.  

On the importance of youth education within the organization

We want to give every child an opportunity to hear live orchestral music. We want to give them a love of music at a really early stage because all the research shows that if they get that opportunity early on, it stays with them through their lives. They may go and explore other areas of music and that’s great too, but it’s there. It’s something that they can come back to. It’s not going to be for every child, but they should have that opportunity regardless of what their background is. I think music has a power to communicate beyond words and giving young people that opportunity, giving broader communities that chance to engage with music and the arts is really important. In fact, I would go as far as to say that it’s a right that they should have. 

On their current tour of the U.S.

I think these programs play to the real strengths of the LSO; the charisma and personality that the LSO has. We’ve got Mahler’s Symphony No.1 and that’s a very “LSO” piece. We also have pieces like the George Walker Sinfonia No.5, which is a composer that we only discovered recently. We also have with us Janine Jansen, the Dutch violinist, who is just such a legend. She’s a player that the LSO absolutely adores to work with and she’s playing the Bernstein Serenade. People will know that Leonard Bernstein was president of the LSO in his later years. We always felt that we were Leonard Bernstein’s European orchestra. There’s a good range of repertoire there.