Norrköping Symphony Orchestra

Founded in 1912, the Norrköping Symphony Orchestra has been developing their orchestral sound and seeking musical challenges in a vast range of genres and styles for more than 100 years. Their concerts, tours and recordings have gotten brilliant reviews in international media, and continue to get more and more attention for their achievements, both traditional and those outside the classical box. Currently, the orchestra is comprised of 85 musicians. Their home stages are the Louis De Geer Concert Hall, which lies in Norrköping’s historical industrial landscape, and the Crusell Concert Hall in Linköping.

German conductor Karl-Heinz Steffens has been Chief Conductor and Artistic Advisor since the 2020/21 season. Among the orchestra’s principal conductors, you can find other distinguished names like Herbert Blomstedt, Okko Kamu, Franz Welser-Möst and Alan Buribayev. The orchestra aims to find the young rising stars of the solo world combined with well established artists like Anne-Sophie Mutter, Simone Lamsma, Lang Lang, Håkan Hardenberger, Johan Dalene, and opera singers like Luciano Pavarotti, José Carreras, Malin Byström, Peter Mattei, Bryn Terfel – an explosive combination of world artists.

Both tradition and new thinking dominate the Norrköping Symphony Orchestra’s history. The main repertoire consists of the great romantic era and classical period composers from Mozart to Mahler, but 20th and 21st century music and Swedish/Nordic music is a very vital part in its programming.

The orchestra tours regularly in Sweden and abroad. With their tours of Europe, Japan and China, the Norrköping Symphony Orchestra has placed Norrköping on the world map. In 2024, it visited the Concertgebouw for the first time and was immediately re-invited.

The orchestra has recorded more than 50 CDs over the years, many of which have received exceptional international attention. Their recording of John Pickard’s “The Flight of Icarus” became the Editor’s Choice in the music magazine Gramophone, the recording of Vagn Holmboe’s Concertos was nominated for a Grammy in 2013. In 2015, they received the Swedish Grammis for Allan Pettersson’s Symphony No. 9. In The Allan Pettersson Project the orchestra, together with conductor Christian Lindberg and BIS Records, will record all 17 symphonies combined with some concertos of the Swedish composer.

Furthermore, the orchestra has an extensive programme for children and youth: 20,000 preschool and school students per year take part in a combination of concerts, study groups and other cooperative work contributing to both production planning and performance.