Have you seen Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, or any of the Star Wars films? Or Aliens, or Raiders of the Lost Ark, or Notting Hill?

If so, you have heard the London Symphony Orchestra playing on the soundtracks of these famous movies.

To celebrate its centenary year, the renowned orchestra has scheduled a worldwide tour for the 2004-05 season including a Far East tour to Singapore, China and Japan.

Sponsored by Rolls-Royce company, which also celebrates its 100th anniversary this year, the concert at Poly Theatre, Beijing on March 6 is promoted as "celebrating 100 year of innovation in music and technology."

Under the baton of Daniel Harding, the orchestra will play Britten's Four Sea Interludes, Stravinksy's Fire Bird Suite and Shostakovich's Symphony No 5.

At the age of 27, Harding is already a grizzled veteran of the European concert circuit. He was only 17 when Simon Rattle hired him as an assistant, and he conducted the Berlin Philharmonic just shy of his 21st birthday.

In 1994, Harding made his professional debut with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, for which he won the Royal Philharmonic Society "Best Debut" award.

In 1996, Harding became the youngest conductor at the BBC Proms, conducting two programmes. He returned to the proms in 1998 to conduct the Scharoun Ensemble, whose members are drawn from the Berlin Philharmonic.

Between 1997 and 2000, Harding was principal conductor of the Trondheim Symphony Orchestra in Norway.

He is currently music director of the Deutsche Kammer philharmonie in Bremen and principal guest conductor of Sweden's Norrkeping Symphony Orchestra and of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra.

Guest conducting engagements have included concerts with the London Symphony, London Philharmonic, City of Birmingham Symphony, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, the Philadelphia Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the Atlanta, Baltimore and Houston Symphony Orchestras.

(China Daily March 3, 2004)