Biography of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra

More than 100 exceptional musicians make up the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, a multiple-award-winning ensemble renowned for its high artistic standard and stylistic breadth, as well as collaborations with the world’s finest composers, conductors, and soloists.

Daniel Harding has been Music Director of the SRSO since 2007, and since 2019 also its Artistic Director. His tenure will last throughout the 2024/2025 season. “It is increasingly rare for the relationship between a conductor and an orchestra not only to last for more than a decade, but to keep growing,” Harding says about working with the orchestra, which he has described as his musical family.

The SRSO performs at Berwaldhallen, concert hall of the Swedish Radio, and is a cornerstone of Swedish public service broadcasting. Its concerts are heard weekly on the classical radio P2 and regularly on national public television SVT. Several concerts are also streamed on-demand on Berwaldhallen Play, and broadcast globally through the EBU. During the pandemic, its livestreamed concerts brought further worldwide attention to the orchestra as it kept giving its audience world-class musical experiences.

The orchestra regularly tours all over Europe and the world. In March 2024, Harding and the SRSO played major works by Mahler, Strauss and Alfvén together with regular musical partner, baritone Christian Gerhaher. Venues included the Elbphilharmonie, Concertgebouw, KKL Luzern, Philharmonie de Paris and Müpa Budapest.

SRSO has an extensive and acclaimed recording catalogue. Recent releases include Jesper Nordin’s triptych Röster, works by Britten featuring Andrew Staples and the SRSO’s solo hornist Chris Parkes, Schönberg’s Violin Concerto with Isabelle Faust, and Mahler’s Symphony No. 5.

The first radio orchestra was founded in 1925, coinciding with Sweden’s first national radio broadcasts. The SRSO assumed its current form in the 1960s and has since had several prominent chief conductors. Two of them, Herbert Blomstedt and Esa-Pekka Salonen, have since been named Conductors Laureate, and continue to perform regularly with the orchestra.