Formed in 1891 as the Scottish Orchestra, the company became the Scottish National Orchestra in 1950, and was awarded Royal Patronage in 1991. A host of renowned conductors has contributed to its success, including Walter Susskind, Sir Alexander Gibson , Bryden Thomson, Neeme Järvi , Walter Weller , and  Alexander Lazarev . 

Stéphane Denève became Music Director in September 2005, and this new partnership continues to enjoy overwhelming acclaim. 

The RSNO performs across Scotland, including seasons in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee, Aberdeen, Perth and Inverness.  It recently toured Austria and Croatia, with two concerts in the Musikverein in Vienna, and last year performed in Paris as part of the Festival Présences. The Orchestra played at the opening ceremony of the Scottish Parliament building in October 2004, and appears regularly at the Edinburgh International Festival and the BBC London Proms . 

The RSNO has a world-wide reputation for the quality of its recordings. Over 200 releases are available, including: the complete symphonies of Sibelius (Sir Alexander Gibson), Dvořák and Prokofiev ( Neeme Järvi), Nielsen and Martinů (Bryden Thomson and Bax (David Lloyd-Jones) ); a complete cycle of Barber's orchestral works (Marin Alsop); and film soundtracks such as Vertigo, Star Wars, Titanic, The Magnificent Seven and The Great Escape. Most recently, the RSNO has worked with Scottish folk/pop singer Eddi Reader on an album of Robert Burns' songs, and has recorded four Glazunov symphonies, the complete score of Shostakovich's ballet The Golden Age (Serebrier) and also his Symphony No11 (Alexander Lazarev). The RSNO's 2002 recording of Holst's The Planets (Lloyd-Jones) has rapidly become one of the biggest-selling classical repertoire recordings of the last decade. In May 2007 the RSNO's much-anticipated first recording under Stéphane Denève  -  the first instalment of a complete cycle of Roussel's orchestral works  -  was released on the Naxos label, and in November received the Diapason d'Or de l'année for Symphonic Music. 

In 2006 the Orchestra launched RSNO musiconline, an internet music streaming and download service which allows subscription access to over 120,000 classical recordings via the RSNO website, www.rsno.org.uk.

The RSNO's award-winning education and community engagement programmes continue to develop musical talent and appreciation with people of all ages throughout Scotland. The introduction of a new concert series to the Glasgow calendar, Naked Classics, sees the RSNO use projections, lighting, a presenter and excerpts by the Orchestra to reveal the stories behind some of the great classical masterpieces.

The RSNO is one of Scotland's National Performing Companies, supported by the Scottish Government. Read more about them here.

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