Los Angeles Philharmonic names Daniel Harding as music director after Dudamel

The Los Angeles Philharmonic has chosen Daniel Harding as its next music director, ending months of speculation about who would succeed Gustavo Dudamel and giving the orchestra a leader with deep ties to its history. Harding, a British conductor and licensed Air France pilot, will begin in the 2027-28 season on a six-year contract and become the LA Phil’s 12th music director.

The appointment links the orchestra’s future to a familiar name. The LA Phil said Harding first conducted the ensemble in 1997 at the Ojai Music Festival, the engagement that introduced him to American audiences. Harding said, “It couldn’t have come a day sooner. I’m very glad it didn’t come a day later,” a reaction that underscored how eagerly he embraced the job.

Kim Noltemy, the LA Phil’s president and chief executive, said Harding emerged from “an extensive search” involving musicians, board members and staff, and called him the “overwhelming choice” based on orchestra feedback. Harding said the Los Angeles Philharmonic had developed an “institutional charisma,” and described the chance to inherit an orchestra shaped by Carlo Maria Giulini, Zubin Mehta, André Previn, Esa-Pekka Salonen and Dudamel as an extraordinary gift.

Harding will oversee programming across Walt Disney Concert Hall, the Hollywood Bowl, The Ford and Youth Orchestra Los Angeles, known as YOLA. The orchestra said he will conduct eight weeks of programming in his first season, then 12 weeks in later seasons, while also helping guide commissioning, touring, media projects and international collaboration efforts. The role places him at the center of one of the country’s most visible classical institutions, founded in 1919 and long defined by the reach of its summer and winter stages.

His resume points to a conductor with a wide international footprint. Harding is music and artistic director of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and music director of the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome. He previously led the Orchestre de Paris and served as principal guest conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra, and he has been a long-time collaborator with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, where he holds the title of conductor laureate.

Harding’s work outside the podium adds an unusual public profile. He began piloting in 2014, joined Air France in 2021 and flies Airbus A320s in Europe and North Africa. Dudamel’s departure after a 17-year run that began in 2009 leaves the LA Phil entering a new era with a conductor who combines continuity, global stature and an uncommon second career in the cockpit.