David Lardi has been the conductor and musical director of NLSO since 1975.

Born in Manchester, David studied at Trinity College of Music, London, and read a degree at King's College, London. He studied orchestral conducting with Bernard Keeffe, choral conducting with Charles Proctor and Laszlo Heltay, and operatic conducting with Marcus Dods. During this time he was awarded the Ricordi Conducting Prize and the City Livery Prize.

He then spent two years at the Accademia Musicale Chigano in Siena, studying under Maestro Franco Ferrara. Within weeks of his arrival he was invited to conduct concerts, and he was awarded the Diploma di Merito before being asked by Maestro Ferrara to work with him in Rome. He has three times won a Performing Rights Society Award for Enterprise.

David is musical director of the Finchley Chamber Choir and the Finchley Chamber Orchestra as well as of the NLSO, and has worked with many orchestras, choirs and leading soloists. He has conducted hundreds of concerts in England, Italy and Germany, ranging in scope from chamber ensembles at venues such as the Queen Elizabeth Hall, the Purcell Room and the Wigmore Hall to a choir of 1,000 and an orchestra of 120 at the concert to mark the reopening of the Great Hall at Alexandra Palace. He has performed a repertoire of over 1,000 works, from early music with period instruments to commissions and first performances, and has given nearly 3,000 lecture-recitals. For over 20 years he was a professor at Trinity College of Music.

David has recorded for Italian and German radio, as well as for the BBC; one of his broadcasts on Radio 3 was chosen for Radio 4's Pick Of The Week. He has also appeared on television, on both the BBC and ITV. In the major series Great Composers he portrayed Beethoven conducting the first perfomance of his 7th symphony. This series has been released on Warner Video.

In April 2002 David recorded a documentary for LWT's "Artworks" series.