The Norrköping Symphony Orchestra, SON, has the reputation of one of the most exciting orchestras in Scandinavia. Not only that, through foreign tours and an extensive CD catalogue, SON has developed an immense following on the international arena.

SON was founded in 1912. Through its long and rich history, it maintains a given place in the region’s cultural life. The orchestra’s home is in De Geer Hall, which lies in Norrköping’s unique Historical Industrial Landscape, and is said by many to be Sweden’s most beautiful concert house. SON’s history is dominated by both tradition and new thinking. The orchestra’s foremost repertoire lies in the great romantics from Beethoven to Mahler, but it considers it equally important to perform 20th-century music and to mirror Swedish/Nordic music. SON also has an extensive programme for children and young people and, every year, it receives 20,000 pre-school and school students in a combination of school concerts, study groups, and other cooperative work where students are also involved in production, planning and performance. SON has placed Norrköping on the world map thanks to tours of Europe, Japan, and China. Its tour to Italy as part of the Festival Pianistico Internazionale Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli received an outstanding response from both the Italian audience and critics.

SON’s history is also characterised by the many young conductors who began their international careers in Norrköping. Herbert Blomstedt and Franz Welser-Möst, both of whom have been Principal Conductor for SON, are the most famous examples. Okko Kamu, Junichi Hirokami, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Daniel Harding, Andrew Manze, Andrew Parrott, Michail Jurowski and Lü Jia are other examples of conductors on the world stage who have had, or have, a working relationship with the orchestra. SON’s First Guest Conductor is the young Spaniard Josep Caballé-Domenech, who has participated in several TV broadcasts both with the Norrköping Symphony Orchestra and the Swedish Radio Orchestra.

SON has also an ambition to find young rising stars of the solo world. Sarah Chang, Daniel Röhn, Lisa Batiashvili, Ilya Gringolts, Karen Gomyo and Julian Bliss are just some of the names that have performed with the orchestra. Cooperation with the likes of Anne Sophie Mutter, Maxim Vengerov, Viktoria Mullova, Lang Lang, Mischa Maisky and, not least, opera singers such as Gösta Winbergh, Håkan Hagegård, Malena Ernman, Anne Sofie von Otter, Peter Mattei and Barbara Bonney, builds an explosive combination of both young and established world artists. Every year, the orchestra collaborates with the Swedish Royal Opera.

Many of SON’s CD recordings have received outstanding international acclaim, such as the latest recording of Ingvar Lidholm’s entire orchestral works, and Schnittke’s Eighth Symphony.