Oslo, Den Norske Opera Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra plays in Oslo Opera House

The Gothenburg Symphony was formed in 1905 and today consists of 109 musicians. The orchestra's base is Gothenburg Concert Hall at Götaplatsen that has gathered music lovers since 1935. Since the 2019-2020 season, Barbara Hannigan is Principal guest conductor. We are also a proud partner of Barbara Hannigan's Equilibrium mentoring program focusing on young singers at the start of their careers. The title Principal Guest Conductor is shared by Pekka Kuusisto from 2025. Wilhelm Stenhammar was the orchestra's chief conductor from 1907 to 1922. He gave the orchestra a strong Nordic profile and invited colleagues Carl Nielsen and Jean Sibelius to the orchestra. Under the direction of conductor Neeme Järvi from 1982-2004, the orchestra made a series of international tours as well as a hundred disc recordings and established themselves among Europe's leading orchestras. In 1996, the Swedish Riksdag appointed the Gothenburg Symphony as Sweden's National Orchestra. In recent decades, the orchestra has had prominent chief conductors such as Santtu-Matias Rouvali, Mario Venzago and Gustavo Dudamel, following Kent Nagano as Principal Guest conductor. Anna-Karin Larsson is CEO and artistic director, Gustavo Dudamel honorary conductor and Neeme Järvi chief conductor emeritus. The orchestra's owner is the Västra Götaland Region. The Gothenburg Symphony works regularly with conductors such as Herbert Blomstedt, Joana Carneiro, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Christian Zacharias and Anja Bihlmaier.

Conductor and soprano Barbara Hannigan is Principal guest conductor of the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra since 2019, embodying music with an unparalleled dramatic sensibility. She moves freely between the multiple roles of conductor, singer and curator. Over more than three decades, she has forged artistic partnerships with extraordinary musicians, directors and choreographers, including Romeo Castellucci, Claus Guth, Vladimir Jurowski, Katie Mitchell, Simon Rattle, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Kirill Petrenko, Sasha Waltz, and Krzysztof Warlikowski. The late conductor and pianist Reinbert de Leeuw has been an extraordinary influence and inspiration on her development as a musician. In the 2026-2027 season, Hannigan begins her tenure as Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, where her spirit of discovery will shape an artistic vision rooted in excellence, openness and collaboration, while forging new connections between Iceland and the wider international music community. Balancing her work as both conductor and soprano, Hannigan maintains long-standing relationships with her colleagues in the orchestral, operatic and chamber music realms. She has maintained multi-year associations with London Symphony Orchestra (as Associate Artist), l'Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne (as Principal Guest Conductor), and performs regularly with the Munich Philharmonic, Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Swedish Chamber Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, and Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra. She makes her Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra conducting debut, performing as part of the joint project between the orchestra and Scapino Ballet entitled La Mer, in which she will sing, conduct and also dance with the artists of this world-renowned dance company. She continues to tour her unique production of Poulenc’s La Voix Humaine, after its most recent successes with New York Philharmonic and Czech Philharmonic Orchestras, bringing the work this season to Berlin with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin. Her recital tour with her most important musical partner, pianist Bertrand Chamayou (works by Messiaen, Scriabin and Zorn) continues in the 2026/27 season with performances throughout Europe. Her awards and honours include the Governor General's Performing Arts Award (2026), the 2025 Polar Music Prize, 2025 Musical America Artist of the Year, "Accademico Onorario (Honorary Academician) (2025) at Accademia di Santa Cecilia, the Order of Canada (2016), Officier des Arts et des Lettres in France (2022), Gramophone Magazine’s 2022 Artist of the Year, Germany's Faust Award (2015), Sweden's Rolf Schock Prize for Musical Arts (2018), and Denmark’s Léonie Sonning Music Prize (2021). Barbara Hannigan resides in Finistère, on the northwest coast of France, looking over an inlet which leads directly across the Atlantic to where she grew up in Waverley, Nova Scotia.