Since its first concert in 1954, the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra (Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo, Osesp) has become an inseparable part of São Paulo and Brazilian culture, promoting deep cultural and social transformation. Having toured Latin America, the United States, Europe, China and Brazil, the São Paulo Symphony plays over a hundred concerts every season for nearly 150,000 people at its own concert hall, Sala São Paulo, which was listed in The Guardian in 2015 as one of the 10 best music halls in the world.

The Orchestra also runs a large educational and outreach program for over 25,000 children and teenagers every season, besides having its own Music Academy for young instrumentalists, choir singers and conductors. Osesp has released over 100 recordings, and its concerts are livestreamed every week on the internet.

In 2020, the Swiss conductor Thierry Fischer took over as Principal Conductor and Music Director. To celebrate Osesp’s 70th anniversary in 2024, the group and Fischer embarked last August on an international tour in Europe, performing at the festivals of Santander, Edinburgh, Amsterdam (Summer Concerts), Wiesbaden (Rheingau), and Berlin, where the Orchestra opened the Musikfest with a highly praised concert at the Philharmonie. The Orchestra will also record an album with commissioned pieces by Unsuk Chin, Felipe Lara, Clarice Assad, Andrew Norman, Esteban Benzecry, Eva García Fernández and Stephanie Macchi — the latter two being the winners of an inedited contest dedicated to female Latin American composers.