The Oslo Philharmonic can trace its roots back to the times of Edvard Grieg and Johan Svendsen, and was in 1919 established under its present name. Music directors and chief conductors from 1919 and on were Goerg Schnéevoigt (1919-21), Johan Halvorsen (1919-10), Ignaz Neumark (1919-21), José Eibenschütz (1921-27), Issay Dobrowen (1927-31), Odd Grüner-Hegge (1931-33 and 1945-52), Olav Kielland (1931-45), Herbert Blomstedt (1962-68), Øivin Fjeldstad (1962-69), Miltiades Caridis (1969-75) and Okko Kamu (1975-79).

With Mariss Jansons, Music Director 1979-2002, the orchestra achieved high international recognition. Touring activities from 1982 and on include most of the prominent venues in Europe and festivals such as BBC Proms, Edinburgh, Lucerne and Salzburg, as well as significant venues in North- and South America and East Asia. In 1997 the Oslo Philharmonic and Mariss Jansons were honoured by residency at Vienna Musikverein, with five concert in one week.

In 2002 Mariss Jansons was succeeded by André Previn, with whom the orchestra performed at festivals like BBC Proms and Lucerne, and venues such as Vienna Musikverein, Philharmonie in Munic, Varnegie Hall in New York, Kennedy Center in Washington, Orchestra Hall in Chicago and Verizon Hall in Philadelphia.^

In 2006 the orchestra signed a five years contract with Jukka-Pekka Saraste as Music Director. With Maestro Saraste the orchestra had during 2006-2007  highly successful concerts in Finland, Estonia, Germany, Italy, Luxemburg, Sweden and Switzerland. On their touring schedule for 2008-2009 are many of the most prominent European concert venues, ref. front page – The Oslo Philharmonic on tour 2008-2009’.

As recording orchestra the Oslo Philharmonic achieved world fame during the 1980s with Mariss Jansons, with their Tchaikovsky cycle on Chandos. The orchestra’s present discography include more than 70 titles within a wide range of repertory, many of which have been awarded with Norwegian and international prizes. Among their later releases are a Brahms cycle and Mahler’s symphonies no. 1 and 9 (both Simax), soloist recordings with frank Peter Zimmermann (Tchaikovsky, Sony), Daniel Müller-Schott (Elgar and Walton, Orfeo), Christian Lindberg (Berio, Xenakis and Turnage, BIS) and the album Norwegian Heartland – Norwegian national romantic treasures  (Grieg, Halvorsen, Svendsen, Saeverud and Tveitt, Simax).

In April 2008 Maestro Saraste and the Oslo Philharmonic recorded the orchestra’s first DVD, with Sibelius’ symphony no. 5 in its original version and also documentary material about Sibelius. The DVD will be released in August 2008.