StraussFestival Orchestra Vienna

Since its founding in 1978 the Strauss Festival Orchestra Vienna has established itself, through performances in the great concert halls of the world, as a leading ensemble for the authentic interpretation of Viennese music. It plays with charm and evident pleasure, with stylistic assurance and with the elegance one expects from Vienna. The orchestra is drawn from members of the major Viennese ensembles, the State Opera, the Vienna Symphony, the ORF Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Vienna Chamber Orchestra, joined by specialists in this repertoire.

For more than forty years the internationally celebrated Strauss specialist Peter Guth shared the musical direction with Willy Büchler. Violin in hand, both carried the tradition of the Strauss dynasty into the twenty-first century. Today a younger generation of conductors takes the podium, with Christoph Koncz a defining presence since 2023.

Since 1 January 2000 the orchestra has given its New Year and year-end galas in the Great Hall of the Vienna Konzerthaus, long since a fixture in the Viennese calendar. A year earlier the City of Vienna had named the ensemble the orchestra that represents Vienna in the world.

Guest performances have taken the Strauss Festival Orchestra Vienna to the Cologne Philharmonie, the Herkulessaal in Munich and the Vienna Musikverein; in 2023 it made its Salzburg debut in the Great Hall of the Mozarteum. Asia is a further focus, above all Japan with appearances at Suntory Hall in Tokyo, as well as the Seoul Arts Center, China and Taiwan. Guest soloists have included Plácido Domingo, Erwin Schrott, Sonya Yoncheva, Herbert Lippert, Daniela Fally, Ildikó Raimondi and Christoph Wagner-Trenkwitz.

In the Johann Strauss anniversary year 2025 the orchestra played its year-end gala to a sold-out Vienna Konzerthaus. In Asia, the USA and across Europe the SFO is among the true audience favourites.