SWR Symphony Orchestra Stuttgart

SWR Symphonieorchester has homes in two major German concert halls: Liederhalle Stuttgart and Konzerthaus Freiburg. The orchestra is the result of the merger between the SWR Radio Symphony Orchestra Stuttgart and the SWR Symphony Orchestra Baden-Baden and Freiburg in September 2016. It specialises equally in historically informed performance, Classical-Romantic core repertoire and contemporary music. In September 2025, François-Xavier Roth will take up his post as Chief Conductor and Artistic Director, succeeding Teodor Currentzis, who led the orchestra from 2018 to 2024.

SWR Symphonieorchester's regular engagements include SWR’s own concert series in Stuttgart, Freiburg and Mannheim, as well as performances at the Donaueschingen Festival for New Music and Schwetzingen SWR Festival. The orchestra has been in residence at the Pentecost Festival in Baden-Baden since 2020. Repeat invitations have taken it to the Salzburg Festival and Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, as well as Berlin, Dortmund, Essen, Frankfurt, Cologne, Edinburgh, London, Barcelona, Madrid, Vienna and Warsaw. 

Internationally renowned conductors who have worked with the orchestra include 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, Eva Ollikainen, Michael Sanderling and Giedrė Šlekytė. The orchestra works with leading soloists such as Leif Ove Andsnes, Yulianna Avdeeva, Renaud Capuçon, Sol Gabetta, Martin Grubinger, Isabelle Faust, Vilde Frang, Hilary Hahn, Janine Jansen, Alexandre Kantorow, Sabine Meyer, Emmanuel Pahud, Fazil Say, Gil Shaham, Antoine Tamestit and Christian Tetzlaff. Violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja has been Artistic Partner since 2024.

SWR Symphonieorchester's comprehensive music education programme reaches around 20,000 children, adolescents and adults every year in the SWR broadcasting area, and numerous concert broadcasts on SWR Kultur and streams on SWR.de/so allow music lovers around the world to participate in the orchestra's concerts.

Since 2024, the SWR Symphony Orchestra has been an official partner of La Maestra, the most important international competition for young female conductors.