The Orchestre de la Suisse Romande (OSR) is a Swiss symphony orchestra, based in

Geneva Geneva ( , ; ) ; ; . is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous in French-speaking Romandy. Situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the ca ...

at the Victoria Hall. In addition to symphony concerts, the OSR performs as the opera orchestra in productions at the

Grand Théâtre de Genève Grand Théâtre de Genève is an opera house in Geneva, Switzerland. As with many other opera houses, the Grand Théâtre de Genève is both a venue and an institution. The venue is a majestic building, towering over Place Neuve, officia ...

History

Ernest Ansermet Ernest Alexandre Ansermet (; 11 November 1883 – 20 February 1969)"Ansermet, Ernest" in '' The New Encyclopædia Britannica''. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 15th edn., 1992, Vol. 1, p. 435. was a Swiss conductor. Biography Anserme ...

founded the OSR in 1918, together with

Paul Lachenal Paul Lachenal (1884, Geneva – 1955) was a Swiss politician and philanthropist. He was born in Geneva as son of the Jean-François Lachenal and the Louise Marie born Gleckner. He studied law at the University of Geneva, which he completed in 19 ...

, with a contingent of 48 players and a season of six months' duration. Besides Swiss musicians, the OSR players initially came from other countries, including Austria, France, Germany and Italy. Ansermet gradually increased the percentage of Swiss musicians in the orchestra, attaining 80% Swiss personnel by 1946. He remained the music director of the OSR for 49 years, from 1918 to 1967. A Swiss radio orchestra based in

Lausanne Lausanne ( , ; ; ) is the capital and largest List of towns in Switzerland, city of the Swiss French-speaking Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Vaud, in Switzerland. It is a hilly city situated on the shores of Lake Geneva, about halfway bet ...

was merged into the OSR in 1938. Subsequently, the OSR began to broadcast radio concerts regularly on Swiss radio. The orchestra had a long-standing contract for recordings with

Decca Records Decca Records is a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis (Decca), Edward Lewis after his acquisition of a gramophone manufacturer, The Decca Gramophone Company. It set up an American subsidiary under the Decca name, which bec ...

, dating from the tenure of Ansermet, and made over 300 recordings for Decca, starting in 1947 with

Debussy Achille Claude Debussy (; 22 August 1862 – 25 March 1918) was a French composer. He is sometimes seen as the first Impressionism in music, Impressionist composer, although he vigorously rejected the term. He was among the most influe ...

's '' La mer''. The OSR premiered many works of the Swiss composers

Arthur Honegger Arthur Honegger (; 10 March 1892 – 27 November 1955) was a Swiss-French composer who was born in France and lived a large part of his life in Paris. Honegger was a member of Les Six. For Halbreich, '' Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher'' is "more even ...

and Frank Martin. During the directorship of

Armin Jordan Armin Jordan (9 April 1932 – 20 September 2006) was a Swiss conductor known for his interpretations of French music, Mozart and Wagner. Armin Jordan was born in Lucerne, Switzerland. "Mr. Jordan was a large man, with a slab of a face and a ful ...

(1985–1997), the OSR continued to make recordings on the

Erato In Greek mythology, Erato (; ) is one of the Greek Muses, the inspirational goddesses of literature, science, and the arts. The name would mean "desired" or "lovely", if derived from the same root as Eros, as Apollonius of Rhodes playfully sugge ...

label. From 2005 to 2012,

Marek Janowski Marek Janowski (born 18 February 1939 in Warsaw) is a Polish-born German conductor. Biography Janowski grew up in Wuppertal, near Cologne, after his mother traveled there at the start of World War II to be with her parents. His father disappear ...

was the artistic director and music director of the OSR. He conducted the OSR in recordings for the Pentatone label. In September 2008, his initial 5-year contract had been extended to 2015, but in January 2010, in a change to the September 2008 contract extension, Janowski and the OSR mutually agreed on the scheduled conclusion of his directorship of the OSR after the 2011–12 season. Following the announcement of Janowski's scheduled 2012 departure, attempts to secure

Bertrand de Billy Bertrand de Billy (born Paris, 11 January 1965) is a French and Swiss conductor. He attended a Jesuit school, but only started serious musical studies when he was around 14–15; he studied piano and violin. CD Opéra https://debilly.com/cd-op ...

and

Kazuki Yamada Kazuki Yamada (山田和樹; born 26 January 1979) is a Japanese conductor. Biography Yamada was born in Hadano, Kanagawa Prefecture. He studied music, with a focus on percussion, at the Tokyo University of the Arts, where his conducting teach ...

as the OSR's next artistic leader did not come to fruition. In September 2010, the OSR named

Neeme Järvi Neeme Järvi (; born 7 June 1937) is an Estonian Americans, Estonian American conductor. Early life Järvi was born in Tallinn. He initially studied music there, and later in Saint Petersburg, Leningrad at the Leningrad Conservatory under Yevge ...

as its ninth artistic and musical director, and in parallel, Yamada as principal guest conductor, with both appointments effective as of 2012, with initial contracts of 3 years for both conductors. Järvi has commercially recorded with the OSR for the Chandos label. He concluded his OSR directorship after the 2014–2015 season.

Jonathan Nott Jonathan Nott (born 25 December 1962, in Solihull, England) is an English conductor. Biography The son of a priest at Worcester Cathedral, Nott was a music student and choral scholar at St John's College, Cambridge, and also studied singing an ...

first guest-conducted the OSR in October 2014. Following these concert appearances, in January 2015, the OSR named Nott its next music and artistic director, effective January 2017. The OSR formalised the new contract and relationship with Nott in March 2016. In February 2021, the OSR announced the conversion of Nott's OSR contract into an evergreen, open-ended lifetime agreement with no set final date. There is an anecdotal fact taken from recording notes by Roy Wallace that the orchestra's bass drum in their "golden age" of recording had the largest circumference in the world. In 2023,

Pierluigi Christophe Orunesu Pierluigi Christophe Orunesu (born May 15, 1978, in Morges, Switzerland) is an entrepreneur of Italo-Swiss origin. Biography Pierluigi Christophe Orunesu established Cybel’Art, a company that developed XR, digital and holographic protocol cal ...

's company Cyber'Art developed the icologram initiative, a digital startup enabling virtual artist presence, and collaborated with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande to record the first holographic symphonic performance presented at Artgenève 2024. In early 2025, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande unveiled Virtual Hall, an immersive

virtual reality Virtual reality (VR) is a Simulation, simulated experience that employs 3D near-eye displays and pose tracking to give the user an immersive feel of a virtual world. Applications of virtual reality include entertainment (particularly video gam ...

platform developed with Swiss ArtTech company Cybel’Art. Blending symphonic music and the performing arts with cutting-edge technology, the application offers

360-degree video 360-degree videos, also known as surround video, or immersive videos or spherical videos, are video recordings where a view in every direction is recorded at the same time, shot using an omnidirectional camera or a collection of cameras. The term ...

and spatial audio from multiple stage perspectives. Pierluigi Orunesu, founder of Cybel’Art, conceptualised it, and it premiered at Artgenève 2025.

Artistic and musical directors

(1918–1967) *

Paul Kletzki Paul Kletzki (born Paweł Klecki; 21 March 1900 – 5 March 1973) was a Polish conductor and composer. Biography Born in Łódź, Kletzki joined the Łódź Philharmonic at the age of fifteen as a violinist. After serving in the First World W ...

(1967–1970) *

Wolfgang Sawallisch Wolfgang Sawallisch (26 August 1923 – 22 February 2013) was a German conductor and pianist. Biography Wolfgang Sawallisch was born in Munich, the son of Maria and Wilhelm Sawallisch. His father was director of the Hamburg-Bremer-Feuerversich ...

(1970–1980) *

Horst Stein Horst Walter Stein (2 May 1928 – 27 July 2008) was a German conductor. Biography Stein was born in Elberfeld, Germany; his father was a mechanic. At school in Frankfurt, he studied piano, oboe, and singing. Later, he continued studies ...

(1980–1985) *

(1985–1997) *

Fabio Luisi Fabio Luisi (born 17 January 1959) is an Italian conductor. He is currently principal conductor of the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, music director of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, and chief conductor of the NHK Symphony Orchestra. Biog ...

(1997–2002) *

Pinchas Steinberg Pinchas Steinberg (; born 13 December 1945) is an Israeli-German conductor and violinist. He is currently the Chief Conductor of the Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra. Early career Steinberg studied violin in the USA under Jascha Heifetz and Jo ...

(2002–2005) *

(2005–2012) *

(2012–2015) *

(2017–present)

References

External links

Orchestre de la Suisse Romande official website

Discogs.com page on discography of OSR
* {{Authority control Musical groups established in 1918 Decca Records artists Swiss symphony orchestras 1918 establishments in Switzerland Orchestras in Geneva Former radio and television orchestras