Thessaloniki State Symphony Orchestra

Established in 1959 by the composer and conductor Solon Michailides, the Thessaloniki State Symphony Orchestra combines the international symphonic repertoire with the promotion of Greek music. Its touring has taken it to venues including Vienna’s Musikverein and Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie, and its recordings have appeared on Deutsche Grammophon, BIS and Naxos. The orchestra commissions new works and supports chamber music through a festival organised with the Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki. Educational performances reach schools, including remote communities through livestreams, while concerts in hospitals and other social institutions form another strand of its public work. Founded in 1959, this is one of Greece's two state symphony orchestras, the other being in Athens, and it has carried the symphonic repertoire in the north of the country ever since. Its concerts are given chiefly at the city's concert hall on the waterfront. Greek composers appear in its programmes alongside the standard canon, and choral and operatic projects are undertaken in partnership with other institutions in Thessaloniki.