It was back in 1962 that the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation decided to establish a permanent orchestral body, which initially consisted of only twelve pieces (chords and continuo group), originally designated as Gulbenkian Chamber Orchestra. This collective was successively enlarged up to the point where today the Orquestra Gulbenkian (the name it has adopted since 1971) counts upon a permanent body of sixty six instrumentalists which can be expanded here and there in accordance with the needs of the programmes at hand.

This structure allows Orquestra Gulbenkian to interpret a wide repertoire which spans all of the Classical period, a significant part of 19th century orchestral literature and much of the music of the 20th century. Works belonging to the current repertoire of the grand traditional symphonic orchestras, namely Haydn’s, Mozart’s, Beethoven’s, Schubert’s, Mendelssohn’s or Schumann’s orchestral productions, can thus be delivered by Orquestra Gulbenkian in versions that are closer to the orchestrations they originally were conceived for as far as the balance of their internal sonic architecture is concerned. In each season the Orchestra executes a regular series of concerts at the Grande Auditório Gulbenkian in Lisbon. There it has had the opportunity of working together with some of the biggest names in the world of music (conductors and soloists). It has also performed on numerous locations all over Portugal, which has allowed it to contribute to decentralizing culture.

On the international stage, the Orchestra has been gradually enlarging its activity and up to date has toured in Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas. This season, the Orquestra Gulbenkian was back to Paris for a concerto in Salle Pleyel with the pianist Abdel Rahman el Bacha (18 October 2010). Other projects are in the making.

In terms of recordings, the name of the Orquestra Gulbenkian has been associated to the Philips, Deutsche Grammophon , Hyperion, Teldec, Erato , Adès, Nimbus, Lyrinx, Naïve and Pentatone labels, among others. Its activity in this field has been acknowledged with several international awards of great prestige right from the start.

Among its latest discographic projects, there is the world’s first recording of Salieri’s Requiem and a recording of works by Ligeti, Kodály and Bartók, both conducted by Lawrence Foster and edited under the Pentatone label. More recently, Orquestra Gulbenkian recorded an issue dedicated to the juvenile public – Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf, Saint-Saëns’s Carnival of the Animals, Britten’s Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra – conducted by Joana Carneiro, to be published soon.

Since the 2002/2003 season, Lawrence Foster has been responsible for the collective’s artistic direction while accumulating the functions of its titular conductor. Claudio Scimone, who was in charge of the latter between 1979 and 1986, in 1987 was named honorary conductor, whereas Simone Young and Joana Carneiro hold the titles of main guest conductor and guest conductor since the seasons of 2007/2008 and 2006/2007.