SWR Symphonieorchester

The SWR Symphony Orchestra has its artistic home in the Liederhalle Stuttgart and the Konzerthaus Freiburg. Formed in September 2016 from the merger of the SWR Radio Symphony Orchestra Stuttgart and the SWR Symphony Orchestra Baden-Baden and Freiburg, its artistic profile includes interpretations of historically informed performance practice, the core classical-romantic repertoire and contemporary music.

 

Annual fixtures in the SWR Symphony Orchestra’s concert calendar include SWR’s own concert series in Stuttgart, Freiburg and Mannheim as well as performances at the Donaueschingen Music Festival and the Schwetzingen SWR Festival. Since 2020, the SWR Symphony Orchestra has been the resident orchestra of the Whitsun Festival at the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden. Invitations regularly take the orchestra to the Salzburg Festival, the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Berlin, Cologne, Frankfurt, Dortmund, Essen, Vienna, Edinburgh, London, Barcelona, Madrid and Warsaw.

 

Internationally sought-after conductors such as Herbert Blomstedt, Peter Eötvös, Christoph Eschenbach, Pablo Heras-Casado, Manfred Honeck, Jakub Hrůša, Eliahu Inbal, Ingo Metzmacher, Kent Nagano, Sir Roger Norrington, Jonathan Nott, Andrés Orozco-Estrada, Michael Sanderling and Giedrė Šlekytė have worked with the SWR Symphony Orchestra.

 

With its extensive music education programme, the orchestra reaches around 15,000 children, young people and adults in the SWR broadcasting area every year. Since 2024, the SWR Symphony Orchestra has been an official partner of ‘La Maestra’, the most important international competition for young female conductors.