Ross Pople is a New Zealand-born British conductor. He is the principal conductor of the London Festival Orchestra. He has worked with Yehudi Menuhin, Clifford Curzon, David Oistrakh, Kentner, George Malcolm, Sir Adrian Boult, Rudolf Kempe, Benjamin Britten, Witold Lutosławski, Krzysztof Penderecki, Michael Tippett, Georg Solti, Leonard Bernstein, George Benjamin, John Casken, Edwin Roxburgh, Luciano Berio, John Tavener, Malcolm Arnold, Pierre Boulez as well as many other major orchestras, choirs and soloists.
As an outstanding young cellist from New Zealand, Ross Pople was awarded scholarships to study in England at the Royal Academy of Music, the Paris Conservatoire and the Chigiana Academia, Siena. After graduating and at the age of 23 Yehudi Menuhin appointed Pople to be solo principal cellist of the Bath/Menuhin Festival Orchestra. He was subsequently appointed solo principal cellist of the BBC Symphony Orchestra.
In 1980 Ross Pople took up the helm of London Festival Orchestra and toured Germany. He quickly made LFO a household name through his summer festival titled Cathedral Classics, often directing from the cello.