Emotions are our forte. To convey them and get closer to our audience, we innovate in staging formats and ways of making music. We have a maxim at the OSV: Music does not belong to those who make it, but rather to those who need it. As such, we act on our commitment to providing value to the community by implementing an array of social and educational projects for groups at risk of social exclusion. We are the only private professional orchestra in Spain with a permanent staff. Our musicians and management team are both the owners and employees of the organisation.
We have performed alongside nationally and internationally acclaimed artists, such as Ana Netrebko, Anastasia Kobekina, Edicson Ruiz, Marco Mezquida, Julian Rachlin, Fazil Say, Gordan Nikolic, Nemanja Radulovic, Andrea Bocelli, Josep Carreras, Barbara Hendricks, Ara Malikian, Paquito d’Rivera, Raphael, Plácido Domingo, Joan Manuel Serrat, Noa, Sting, Alan Parsons Project, Love of Lesbian, Stay Homas, Miguel Poveda and The Who, among many others.
Our roll-call of principal conductors is as follows: Albert Argudo (1988-1992); Jordi Mora (1993-1997); Salvador Brotons (1997-2002); Edmon Colomer (2002-2005); David Giménez Carreras (2006-2009), Rubén Gimeno (2009-2016), James Ross (2017-2018). Our current principal conductor, Xavier Puig, has held the post since September 2018.
The OSV has a packed schedule, performing over 115 concerts a year. Our main concert venue is the Palau de la Música Catalana, in Barcelona, where – in partnership with the Fundació Orfeó Català - Palau de la Música Catalana – we hold our annual “Symphonic Concerts at the Palau” and “Christmas at the Palau” seasons, comprising more than 35 concerts. We also perform concert seasons at the Teatre La Faràndula, in our home city of Sabadell, as well as in other cities of the Vallès area, such as Terrassa and Sant Cugat. Moreover, ever since our foundation, we have been the partner orchestra of the Òpera a Catalunya circuit, taking opera around Catalonia through the Fundació Òpera a Catalunya.
The innovative path we have followed in our programmes and concert formats has led us to take part in several film projects, playing music from Psycho, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and Buster Keaton’s The General. We have also performed alongside leading professional dubbing artists such as Salvador Vidal, Mercè Montalà, Luis Posada and Jordi Brau in concerts paying tribute to the music of composers like John Williams, Ennio Morricone, Nino Rota, or to great heroines of the cinema. Other multimedia events in which we have participated include The Legend of Zelda, Dragon Ball and VideoGames Live. Some of these events have been produced independently by the OSV, while others have been produced in partnership with production companies such as Live Nation, Concertstudio or Proactiv.
With more than 22,000 followers on X, 19,000 on Facebook and 6,400 on Instagram, we are the private symphony orchestra with the greatest impact and the largest number of followers on social media. We produced and performed the flashmob “Som Sabadell” (“We Are Sabadell”) for Banc Sabadell. With more than 93 million views on YouTube, it is the world’s most-viewed symphony orchestra video.