The SWR Symphonieorchester Stuttgart is the result of the merger between the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra (SWR) and the SWR Symphony Orchestra Baden-Baden and Freiburg in September 2016. Although the SWR Symphonieorchester Stuttgart is still relatively new, it has already made its mark. Distinguished lines of musical traditions continued by its two predecessors blend with each other.
Since their foundation in 1945/46, high-profiled principle conductors have successfully shaped the SWR orchestras: In Baden-Baden/Freiburg Hans Rosbaud, Ernest Bour, Michael Gielen, Sylvain Cambreling and François-Xavier Roth; in Stuttgart Hans Müller-Kray, Sergiu Celibidache, Sir Neville Marriner, Gianluigi Gelmetti, Georges Prêtre, Sir Roger Norrington and Stéphane Denève.
The profile of the SWR Symphonieorchester Stuttgart comprises New Music, the symphonic orchestral literature of bygone eras as well as interpretative approaches of the historically informed performance practice. Making demanding music attractive to all ages is also an important objective.
World-class conductors such as Christoph Eschenbach, Herbert Blomstedt, David Zinman, Peter Eötvös, Sir Roger Norrington, Ingo Metzmacher, Kent Nagano, Eliahu Inbal, Michael Sanderling, Jakub Hrůša and Omer Meir Wellber are guests of the SWR Symphonieorchester Stuttgart. Among the top-class soloists, some of them "Artists in Residence” of the first three seasons, are Gil Shaham, Tzimon Barto and Antoine Tamestit as well as other touring soloists such as Hilary Hahn, Fazil Say, Julia Fischer, Mischa Maisky, Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Martin Grubinger, Renaud Capuçon and Janine Jansen.
Apart from many performances in SWR’s own series of concerts in Stuttgart, Freiburg and Mannheim, the SWR Symphonieorchester Stuttgart appears at the Donaueschingen Festival for New Music and the Schwetzingen Festival. The SWR Symphonieorchester Stuttgart has performed at concerts in Vienna, London, Salzburg, Madrid, Munich, Edinburgh, Barcelona, Dortmund, Warsaw, Essen, Basle, Frankfurt and Tallinn, and has been a regular fixture at the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, the Rheingau Music Festival, the Heidelberger Frühling, the Festival Acht Brücken in Cologne and the Musikfest Berlin as well as to a tour to China.