← Artists© Andreas BalonViennaSymphony Orchestra
The orchestra of the City of Vienna · since 1900
Biography
Founded in 1900 as the Wiener Concertverein, to give affordable orchestral concerts and to bring the music of its day to first performance.
The Vienna Symphony Orchestra is one of the leading orchestras on the international scene. At the centre of its work stands the cultivation and further development of the Viennese sound. At the same time, since its foundation the orchestra has built a reputation for artistic curiosity through world premieres, unusual projects and collaborations. In 2025 it celebrated its 125th anniversary.
With some 128 musicians, the Vienna Symphony carries a large part of the city’s symphonic concert life. The core of its repertoire is the great Romantic literature of Brahms, Bruckner, Mahler and Richard Strauss. Its history includes the world premieres of Bruckner’s Ninth Symphony, Schoenberg’s Gurre-Lieder, Ravel’s Piano Concerto for the Left Hand and Franz Schmidt’s “Das Buch mit sieben Siegeln”.
The orchestra is at home in the Vienna Konzerthaus and the Musikverein. As an opera orchestra it appears regularly at the MusikTheater an der Wien, and it has been orchestra in residence at the Bregenz Festival since 1946. Tours take the Vienna Symphony to the major musical centres of the world on a regular basis.
Petr Popelka has been chief conductor since the 2024/25 season. From the 2026/27 season Elim Chan joins the orchestra as Artistic Partner.
Künstlersekretariat Buchmann GmbH has organised numerous tours of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra.
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