The National Symphony Orchestra of the Republic of Belarus is one of the oldest institutions in the former Soviet Union. It was founded in April 1927. The first performance given by the orchestra was conducted by the great Russian composer R. Glier, and the soloist was the famous Austrian pianist R. Gottlieb. The Belarusian State Philharmonic Society was started in 1937 and the Orchestra became part of this new institution. In the same year, 1937, the young and talented and later famous I. Mussin took charge of the orchestra.

The National Symphony Orchestra has always ranked among the foremost Russian orchestras, owing to the fact that a number of very distinguished maestros took great pleasure in coming to Minsk in order to conduct, among them K. Sanderling, K. Kondrashin, I. Temirkanov, D. Kitaenko, K. Tsekki, and M. Ferrero. E. Mravinsky, G. Roshdestvensky, C. Svetlanov, X. Yvaki, V. Gergiev and the composer Aram Khatchaturian.

In more recent years, some leading soloists of the 20th century have performed with the orchestra, including David Oistrakh, S. Richter, M. Rostropovich, G. Vishnevskaya, E. Guilels, L. Kogan, N. Gutman, M.Maisky, G. Kremer, Y. Menuhin, V. Ashkenazy, I Stern, and V Clibern among others. Two distinguished Russians, Victor Dubrovsky and Vitaly Kataev as well as Yuri Efimov and P-D Ponnel have held office as permanent conductors of the orchestra.

In 1996 the great French conductor Misha Katz brought a fresh boost of energy into the musical life of Belarus. He conducted the National Symphony Orchestra for the first time in December 1996 and in 1997 he became its principle conductor. Maestro Gennady Provatorov was chief conductor from 1998-2001. The orchestra has toured in Bulgaria, Germany, Italy, Greece, Spain, the Netherlands, Lebanon, France Switzerland and many other countries. Since September 2001 Alexander Anissimov has been the Chief Conductor of the orchestra, thus beginning a new era and introducing a new level into its creative activities.

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