Formed by Council of Ministers of Ukraine in November of 1918, the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine is considered to be one of the finest symphony orchestras in Eastern Europe. Its first conductor was Oleksander Horilyj, followed by Natan Rachlin, who was their Artistic Director betweem 1937 until 1962. Stefan Turchak, Volodymyr Kozhuchar, Fedir Hlushchenko, Igor Blazhkov and Theodore Kuchar have all since held the position of the Orchestra’s Principal Conductor. Other conductors who have worked with the NSOU include Leopold Stokowski, Igor Markevitch, Kurt Sanderling, Evgeny Mravinsky, Kiril Kondrashin, Evgeny Svetlanov, and Gennady Rozhdestvensky. Volodymr Sirenko has been Artistic Director and Chief Conductor since April 1999. In June 2006, Alexander Hornostai joined the orchestra as Managing Director and Producer.
