The idea of creating a single musical body representative of Swiss musical culture was first proposed by Ernst Ansermet with the OSR in 1918, then in 1938 by Arturo Toscanini with the ‘Elite orchestra’ of the Lucerne Festival.
In 2016, a group of Swiss musicians and administrators combined their energy, patriotism and professionalism and agreed to create a new orchestra representing all of Switzerland under the name of the Swiss National Orchestra.