Plovdiv Philharmonic Orchestra was founded in 1945. Its origin goes back to one hundred years of history of the Thrace Culture Region orchestra traditions.
More than 100 professional musicians are performing a large repertoire of classical and modern symphony music, which speaks for the fact that a large number of famous Bulgarian concert masters have started their career with the Plovdiv Philharmonic Orchestra before joining world-famous orchestra, such as the Metropolitan Opera (Elmira Durvarova), the Dresden State Philharmonic Choir (Gancho Ganchev), and many more.
The list of the popular conductors includes Vladi Simeonov, Rouslan Raichev, Dobrin Petkov, Nayden Todorov, etc. The Orchestra has performed under the conduction of Emil Chakarov, Roumen Bayraktarov, the eminent Bulgarian composers Ivan Spassov and Vassil Kazandzhiev, as well as many world-famous musicians: Janos Ferencek, Enrike Batiz, Jan Krenz, etc. World-famous musicians such as Svyatoslav Richter, Nikolay Giaourov, Stoyka Milanova, Lyudmil Angelov have been among the performing solo players.
Plovdiv Philharmonic Orchestra has been a guest to a large number of concerts in Germany, Switzerland, Poland, Italy, Austria, France, Greece. Its success on European stages has been preserved in numerous LP albums, audio and video records, CDs.