About Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra

In addition to concerts in the Gothenburg Concert Hall and on international tours, the orchestra performs every summer at Götaplatsen and in the Slottsskogen park, and gives guest performances at the concert hall in Vara. The symphony orchestra’s digital concert hall GSOplay broadcasts concerts live and on demand in full HD.

The National Orchestra of Sweden

Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra was founded in 1905 and today consists of over 100 musicians. The orchestra’s home is the Gothenburg Concert Hall, which offers many opportunities for meetings and experiences for visitors of all ages.

Santtu-Matias Rouvali is the Chief Conductor. From season 2019-2020 he will get Barbara Hannigan and Christoph Eschenbach by his side as the orchestra’s first guest conductors – a strong three-leaf clover with three completely different artists.

Sten Cranner is the orchestras managing and artistic director, Gustavo Dudamel honorary conductor and Neeme Järvi principal conductor emeritus. The orchestra is a part of Region Västra Götaland.

Under the leadership of the conductor Neeme Järvi, 1982–2004, the orchestra made a number of international tours and around a hundred recordings, and established itself as one of the foremost orchestras in Europe. In 1997, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra was appointed as the National Orchestra of Sweden.

Every year we have the pleasure of having a unique Artist in Residence with us – a strong artist with both magnificant musical skills and an inspiring artistry. We are also a proud partner to Barbara Hanningan´s mentoring program Equilibrium with focus on young singers at the beginning of his career.

Stenhammar and the Nordic profile

Wilhelm Stenhammar was the principal conductor of the orchestra during the period 1907–1922. He gave Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra a distinctly Nordic profile and invited his colleagues Carl Nielsen and Jean Sibelius to the orchestra.

Today, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra regularly collaborates with such conductors as Joana Carneiro, Kent Nagano, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Neeme Järvi, Nathalie Stutzmann, Gustavo Dudamel, Christian Zacharias and Herbert Blomstedt.

Tours around the world

Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra received its international breakthrough in 1987, when the orchestra visited Asia and the USA. Subsequently, the orchestra has also toured in Japan, China and Europe, and performed at the BBC Proms in London, Lucerne in Switzerland, the Salzburg festival, the Musikverein in Vienna and the Barbican in London.

For children and youth

Every year, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra carries out concerts and activities for children, youth, families and schools. The Concert Hall is also a meeting place for young musicians – from those just beginning to students of the music academies. The spring break orchestra and the autumn break choir are a tradition to look forward to every year, as is the collaboration with the cultural schools and the International Youth Orchestra and Choir Camp Side by Side music camp.

El Sistema

In 2009, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra began a collaboration with the City of Gothenburg to establish El Sistema in Sweden. It was the orchestra’s then principal conductor, Gustavo Dudamel, who brought the model with him from Venezuela.

In 2010, the first El Sistema school started in Hammarkullen, under the management of the cultural school, Angereds kulturskola. El Sistema activities now take place in all districts of Gothenburg and the model has received national and international distribution. All El Sistema schools in Gothenburg are managed by the municipality, with musicians from the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra as mentors.

Since 2016, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra is the main organizer of the International Youth Orchestra and Choir Camp Side by Side in collaboration with the El Sistema Foundation Sweden.

Meetings with strong artist profiles

The list goes on of all the swedish artists who played with Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra – Håkan Hellström,  bob hund, Laleh, Avishai Cohen, Timbuktu, Nina Persson, Soundtrack of our lives, Weeping Willows and many more. The performers’ songs rendered in a specially crafted arrangement where the musical creativity to create unique concert experiences – live, on GSOplay and on records.

Prestigious recordings

Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra has released recordings on Alpha Classics, BIS, Chandos and Deutsche Grammophon, in sum over hundred recordings. The most of them you can find on platforms like Spotify.

You can also find us at Google Cultural Institute.