Wiener Johann Strauss Orchester

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Wiener Johann Strauss Orchester (Vienna Johann Strauss Orchestra) is an Austrian orchestra based in Vienna.

The orchestra was formed under the auspices of Professor Oskar Goger and the ORF (Austrian Radio) in 1966. Eduard Leopold Strauss, nephew of Johann Strauss III, who carried on the Strauss dynasty musical tradition into the 20th century, was the orchestra's first conductor.^[1]

The primary aim of this orchestra is to recreate the touring Strauss Orchestra of the days of Johann Strauss I, who was the founder of the Strauss musical dynasty. The members of the orchestra were selected by other leading Vienna orchestras such as the Vienna Symphony Orchestra and the Vienna Radio Orchestra so that it would be first-rate.

Eduard Leopold (better known as Eduard Strauss II) took this orchestra for a tour in North America in October 1966 and success followed until his death in 1969. Willi Boskovsky was then chosen as principal conductor of the orchestra and has recorded much of the Strauss family music with this orchestra on the EMI record label.

Its current conductors are Alfred Eschwé and Martin Sieghart. Professor Franz Bauer-Theussl also conducted the orchestra at some point after Boskovsky's death.