[5] The orchestra features young German musicians under the baton of renowned conductors such as Herbert von Karajan, Kurt Masur, Gerd Albrecht, Carl St. Clair, Steven Sloane, Eiji Ōue, Kirill Petrenko[6] and Simon Rattle.

The programme includes classical and romantic orchestral music, contemporary works by composers such as Hans Werner Henze and Karl Amadeus Hartmann as well as world premieres by Peter Ruzicka and Bernd Franke, among others.

In 2013, to mark the 50th anniversary of the Élysée Treaty, the Bundesjugendorchester performed a series of concerts together with its French counterpart, the Orchestre Français des Jeunes, under the direction of Dennis Russell Davies.

[10] In 2014, the orchestra renewed its collaboration with John Neumeier and gave joint guest performances with the Bundesjugendballett in Baden-Baden, Essen, Cologne, Hamburg and Berlin.

In the summer of the same year, a guest tour with Markus Stenz took them to Tunisia before they played at German President Joachim Gauck's civic celebration in Bellevue Palace in September.