In the 1940s, music student Edmond de Stoutz began to meet regularly with a number of friends in his free time to make music together. The joy of pursuing their creative ideals in this setting and the shared passion for chamber music sparked a desire among them to found a chamber orchestra. This led to the first public concert in Zurich in 1945.

77 years later, the Zurich Chamber Orchestra is one of the leading orchestras of its kind. For more than 50 years, Edmond de Stoutz was the driving force behind the orchestra community. A tireless idealist and charismatic spirit, he inspired musicians and audiences alike and created a large support network around the orchestra. After the de Stoutz era, conductors Howard Griffiths, Muhai Tang and Sir Roger Norrington continued to shape the sound and musical direction of the ZKO in a lasting way. Since 2016, with Daniel Hope as Music Director, the orchestra has for the first time predominantly dispensed with a conductor and follows the dynamic principle of “Play & Conduct”, in which the soloist leads the orchestra from his instrument.

The ZKO is an orchestra with a distinct travelling DNA. Just a few years after its founding, the ZKO regularly gave concerts abroad. Invitations to international festivals such as the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, the Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, the Rheingau Music Festival, the Gstaad Menuhin Festival or Odessa Classics, guest performances in major music centres, concert tours through European countries, America, Asia and South Africa as well as numerous recordings celebrated by the specialist press are proof of the Zurich Chamber Orchestra’s worldwide reputation today.

The ZKO’s repertoire has been wide-ranging since its beginnings. It ranges from baroque to classical and romantic to contemporary. Also noteworthy is the collaboration with musicians from other fields such as jazz, folk music and popular entertainment. Family concerts, outreach work with children and young people and the promotion of young instrumentalists are just as important to the Zurich Chamber Orchestra as its ongoing collaboration with world-renowned soloists.