The orchestra has a three-member Artistic Leadership Team, which comprises Chief Conductor and Artistic Director Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Principal Guest Conductor and Artistic Co-director Pekka Kuusisto and Composer-in-Residence Anna Thorvaldsdottir (season 25/26).
The Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra has premiered the majority of Jean Sibelius's orchestral compositions, and it has profiled itself as a high-class symphony orchestra that tours the most internationally renowned arenas, makes award-winning recordings and commissions and premieres works of leading international composers. The orchestra is recognized for its strong investment in reaching different audiences through, for example, the HPO Kids project and its own HKO Screen online concerts.
The orchestra regularly performs with renowned guest conductors and artists around the world. Most recently orchestra has worked with e.g. violinist Joshua Bell and Leila Josefowicz, tenor Stuart Skelton, doublebassist Esperanza Spalding and composers Joe Hisaishi and Kaija Saariaho. Conductors like Esa-Pekka Salonen, Nathalie Stutzmann, Osmo Vänskä as well as John Storgårds and Susanna Mälkki – both previous Chief Conductors of the orchestra – have taken the podium in Helsinki Music Centre with HPO.
During its 140 years of operation, the orchestra has made more than 100 successful tours abroad. The first tour in year 1900 headed to Paris World Fair and since then Helsinki Philharmonic has toured in all continents. As part of its 140th anniversary celebration the orchestra was invited to perform in prestigious concert halls in USA: Carnegie Hall in New York and Washington Performing Arts / Kennedy Center in Washington D.C.
The orchestra's recordings have received numerous awards and earned several Grammy nominations.
