The symphony orchestra of the National Academic Bolshoi Opera and Ballet Theatre of the Republic of Belarus is the earliest ensemble of the country. The historical basis for its formation was established in the early twentieth century and closely connected with the traditions of the Belarusian national culture.
In 1933 the State Opera and Ballet Theatre was opened with the premiere of Carmen. The classical repertoire became the basis for the professional development of the orchestra. It was led by famous conductors from year to year: Ilya Gitgarts, Natan Grubin, Onisim Bron, Vladimir Piradov, Lev Liubimov, Gaziz Dugashev, Kirill Tikhonov, Yaroslav Voshchak, Tatiana Kolomiytseva, Gennady Provatorov, Alexander Anisimov.
The present-day performing style of the orchestra is formed by conductors of the theatre Honoured Art Worker of the Republic of Belarus Nikolai Koliadko, Vladimir Ovodok, Yuri Karavaev, Aleksey Verhoven.
Many great masters such as Vladimir Spivakov, Robert Satanowski, Jonas Aleksa, Nicola Giuliani, Fuat Mansurov, Yevgeny Kolobov, Valery Gergiev, Dmitry Khokhlov, Eraldo Salmieri, Reinhard Seehafer, Mariano Rivas, Yuri Kochnev, Ralf Weikert, Alexandru Samoilă, Gintaras Rinkevičius, Yalchin Adigozalov, Felix Korobov, Eyyub Guliyev, Amos Talmon, Manfred Mayrhofer, Pavel Sorokin and others worked with our orchestra.
Such outstanding singers of the 20th and 21st centuries as Ivan Kozlovsky, Sergei Lemeshev, Virgilijus Noreika, Yevgeny Nesterenko, Bela Rudenko, Lyudmila Shemchuk, Galina Vishnevskaya, Elena Obraztsova, Irina Arkhipova, Maria Bieșu, Vladimir Atlantov, Vladislav Piavko, Maria Guleghina, Paata Burchuladze and many others commended the work of the orchestra.
The symphony orchestra of the theatre comprises more than 150 talented musicians, who educated in the Belarusian State Academy of Music and leading conservatories of the countries of the former USSR.
The orchestra's repertoire is extremely diverse: operas, ballets, works of cantata-oratorio genre (Requiem by Giuseppe Verdi, Requiem by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Carmina Burana by Carl Orff, Spring by Sergei Rachmaninoff, Oedipus rex by Igor Stravinsky, etc.), symphonic music (symphonies by Hector Berlioz, Johannes Brahms, Pyotr Tchaikovsky, Gustav Mahler, Sergei Rachmaninoff, overtures and symphonic poems by Pyotr Tchaikovsky, etc.), instrumental concerts (Pyotr Tchaikovsky, Sergei Rachmaninoff). The repertoire of the orchestra is gradually expanding, covering musical and style areas from the baroque music to modern academic and popular music.
The orchestra performed in theatres and concert halls of Brazil, Great Britain, Hungary, Germany, Hong Kong, Greece, Israel, Spain, Kuwait, Lithuania, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Thailand, Ukraine and Estonia.
The orchestra started touring abroad with symphonic music programmes since February 1992.For the first time it was in Spain, where our orchestra was warmly welcomed by the audience of Madrid, A Coruña and Barcelona. From 1998 to 2002 the orchestra took part in "Classic Open-air" festivals in Solothurn (Switzerland). Famous foreign singers such as Giuseppe Giacomini, Gwyneth Jones, Christian Johansson, Francisco Araiza, Eduardo Tumadzhian, Antonio Salvadori, Salvatore Fisichella, Montserrat Caballe, Naomi Nadelman and many others performed with our orchestra. Foreign press has repeatedly noted the performing skills of the orchestra musicians and the ensemble as a whole.
In 2016-2017 the symphony orchestra of the National Academic Bolshoi Opera and Ballet Theatre of the Republic of Belarus has toured in Germany, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Austria and Switzerland.
The symphony orchestra is a regular participant of the Bolshoi Theatre of Belarus large-scale projects, including the Minsk International Christmas Opera Forum, festival of opera and ballet art “Evenings of the Bolshoi Theatre at the Radziwill Castle”, Big New Year’s Ball at the Bolshoi Theatre of Belarus, as well as gala concerts with the participation of chorus and opera soloists, concert programmes “Strauss invites”, etc. The high professionalism of the orchestra musicians and conductors is the basis of the outstanding creative achievements of the ensemble.