First foundation of Bursa Region State Symphony Orchestra was laid in 1995 as “Uludağ University Chamber Orchestra”, which consisted of strings. The concerts of this ensemble and the huge interest and wishes of art lovers of Bursa led to establishment of “Bursa Wind Ensemble” in frame of Bursa Culture Art and Tourism Foundation in 1996 with support of Bursa Metropolitan Municipality. These two groups came together with personal effort of Mr.Erdem Saker, Mayor of Bursa Metropolitan Municipality at that time and support of Prof.Dr Ayhan Kızıl, Rector of Uludağ University at that time and they formed the “Bursa Symphony Orchestra”. It was for the first time in Turkey, that a university and a municipality founded an orchestra as a contribution to city culture.



First conductor of Orchestra was composer Mr.Hasan Adıgüzelzade from Azerbaijan, who carried on this function until 1998. In the same year state artist Mr.Hikmet Şimşek took on the task of artistical advisor and Mr.Orhan Şallıel the task of conductor, so the structure of orchestra was renewed. In 1999 the Orchestra is connected to Ministry of Culture and got a new name “Bursa Region State Symphony Orchestra”. It was for the first time in Turkey, that an orchestra got the designation “Region” and got the mission to bring polyphonous music not only to the city centre, but also to other cities and towns of the region. Young conductor Orhan Şallıel was appointed as permanent conductor and Mr.Ahmet Borova worked as founder director, until he retired 2003. After this the function of director is given to a member of orchestra by election amongst all members for one year each time.



The orchestra is extending its repertoire since its foundation and performing concerts with world known Turkish and foreign conductors and soloists. Next to weekly concerts in the city during the season, Orchestra performs several concerts in the region and also educational concerts for young pupils. It has also taken on the performing of the opening concert of International Bursa Festival. Besides in Bursa and in the region, the Orchestra has performed in Aspendos, Bodrum, Ankara, İstanbul, İzmir, Antalya, Kütahya, Çanakkale and Cyprus under conductorship of all Turkish conductors and many world famous conductors as (in alphabetical order) R.Abdullayev, J.M. Florencio Jr., I.Galati, T.Kashif, F.Kerimov, M.Pijarowski, A.Pirolli, A.Rudin, T.Strugala, M.Tabachnik and E.Tabakov. Many famous soloists, for example (in alphabetical order) Adilia Aliyeva, Gilles Apap, İsmail Aşan, Ruhi Ayangil, Jiri Barta, Sevin Berk, İdil Biret, Peter Bruns, Jorge Caballero, Marcio Carneiro, Ayla Erduran, Verda Erman, Marin Geras, Ruşen Güneş, Ercan Irmak, Suna Kan, Alexander Markov, Vania del Monaco, Valery Oistrach, Gülsin Onay, Al Panebianco, Alexander Rudin, Arif Sağ, Ayşegül Sarıca, Fazıl Say, Stefan Schilli, Hüseyin Sermet, Naoko Shimizu and Gülşen Tatu and many others have performed accompanied by our Orchestra.



Mustafa Kemal Atatürk has mentioned, that polyphonous music is one of the most important components on the way to contemporary civilization level, and all members of our Orchestra will try to continue the mission to make it known and spread to city and land through their lives and they will be proud to contribute to this task.