The New Zealand Symphony Orchestra is the country's national orchestra and the flagship of the performing arts in New Zealand. It was founded in 1946 and gave its first public performance in March 1947.

Pietari Inkinen was appointed as the NZSO’s Music Director from January 2008, succeeding James Judd who held the position from 1999 to 2007 and is now Music Director Emeritus. Other conductors who have worked with the NZSO during his tenure include Alexander Lazarev, Dimitri Sitkovetsky, David Atherton, Yan Pascal Tortelier and Edo de Waart. The orchestra numbers 90 players drawn from an international pool of musicians. It gives over a hundred concerts annually; all symphonic programmes are presented in Auckland and Wellington, and the orchestra visits some 30 other towns and cities each year.

A highlight of the orchestra’s tours outside of New Zealand was the much-celebrated visit to Seville to perform at the1990 Expo with Dame Kiri Te Kanawa under the baton of Conductor Laureate Franz-Paul Decker. Notable recent highlights include two performances at the 2000 Sydney Olympic Arts Festival (which featured premières of works by Gareth Farr), and the NZ sell-out concerts in the 2001 ‘Ludwig! A Feast of Beethoven’ series. In 2005 the NZSO undertook a highly successful tour that included performances at the BBC Proms, the Concertgebouw, Snape Maltings and the World Expo at Aichi in Japan.

The NZSO is involved in education programmes, performs family and schools concerts, accompanies opera and ballet productions and records for television, film and radio. It commissions and performs New Zealand music, and has a long recording history which has seen it move into the world market and win many international awards.

The NZSO has an extensive catalogue of CD recordings. As part of a commitment to promote and encourage music by New Zealand composers, the NZSO makes at least one recording of New Zealand music annually.