Sofia Philharmony, the oldest established symphony orchestra in Bulgaria, was founded in 1928, on the initiative of the renowned violinist, conductor and pedagogue Prof. Sasha Popov. The creative development of the orchestra is related to the names of the outstanding Bulgarian conductors Konastantin Iliev, Dobrin Petkov, Vladi Simeonov, Dimiter Manolov, Yordan Dafov, Emil Tabakov, Yulian Kovatchev.

     Sofia Philharmonic organization has its own concert hall, Bulgaria Concert Hall, where it unites the symphony orchestra of 120 musicians, Philharmonic Choir of 100 singers, several chamber music ensembles and a number of soloists. The Orchestra has worked with many celebrated guest conductors and soloists including Herman Abendrott, Kurt Masur, Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Mstislav Rostropovich, Leonid Kogan, Svyatoslav Richter, to name a few.

     Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra repertoire covers a wide spectrum of music - from the popular classics to the latest in contemporary pieces, giving special prominence to Bulgarian composers' works. In recent years, the Orchestra's programs have contained a significant emphasis on a large scale of symphonic works and have performed the complete cycles of works by Bruckner, Mahler, and Beethoven, and the most important works of Scriabin, Rachmaninov and R. Strauss.

     The Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra has a busy touring schedule. The Orchestra realized successful tours in many countries of the world.