Stavanger Symphony Orchestra (SSO) performs and has its concerts in the Fartein Valen in Stavanger concert hall in Norway which is considered one of the best concert halls in Europe.
Andris Poga is SSO’s chief conductor. Tianyi Lu is the orchestra’s current conductor-in-residence. Recent guest conductors have included Karina Canellakis, Pablo Heras-Casado, James Gaffigan, Stanislav Kochanovsky, Dalia Stasevska and Vassily Sinaisky. Frans Brüggen was the SSO’s artistic director for early music from 1990–1997; Philippe Herreweghe had the same position from 2000 to 2004 and Fabio Biondi from 2006 to 2016.
The orchestra has recorded several albums of Scandinavian music, as well as baroque music with Fabio Biondi. The orchestra was founded in 1938 and consists of 85 musicians from 23 different nations.