Symphony Orchestra of the Slovene National Theatre Maribor is the leading Symphony Orchestra in the wider region which has a relatively long creative continuity. The rich history of the orchestra is closely linked to its home institution – The Maribor Opera House Since 1919 it has been going through various transformations caused by large political and cultural changes as the fall of the Habsburg Empire, the defeat of the Nazism after 1945 and last but not least the Slovenian Independence in 1991. Only two years after the independence of Slovenia the orchestra started working under the name Maribor Philharmonics, which was founded as an association on 11 June 1993 but remained in function only until November 2004 when it began organising concerts in the Opera of the Slovene National Theatre Maribor. This practice was further emphasized after the building of the Grand Hall (Velika dvorana).

The Orchestra, which is in a way an inherent part of all concerts as well as opera and ballet performances, has been focusing on creating instrumental music, and music and theatre performances of various genres from Baroque, Classicism, 20th Century music up to the Contemporary symphonic performances under the baton of various internationally praised conductors from Slovenia and abroad. The orchestra makes frequent guest performances abroad and its latest success are most certainly the two one-month guest performances in Japan in 2014 with operas Carmen and Aida.