Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra

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The Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra of the Israel Broadcasting Authority (Hebrew: התזמורת הסימפונית ירושלים, רשות השידור, ha-Tizmoret ha-Simfonit Yerushalayim Rashut ha-Shidur) traces its origins to the national radio orchestra founded in the 1940s as the Kol Radio Orchestra. It acquired its present form (and name) after expanding in the 1970s.

Since its foundation, the Orchestra has prided itself on having an extensive repertoire, which not only revisits the masterpieces at the core of the classical canon, but also promotes the work of more recent composers from Israel and abroad. In a home town concert in 2000, the Jerusalem Symphony cooperated with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and conductor Lorin Maazel to give the premiere of Krzysztof Penderecki's seventh symphony, The Seven Gates of Jerusalem, which had been commissioned to conclude the Jerusalem 3000 celebrations. This highly acclaimed performance was repeated by the two orchestras in Munich later that year to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the German orchestra.