The national status of the orchestra is reflected in its program of events, including weekly symphonic concerts in the Wawel Royal Castle, or at the Jagiellonian University's Collegium Novum, and prominent Kraków churches.

[4] Although the attempts to create the first modern-type symphony orchestra in the city go back to the 18th century under Austrian rule, the professional team was assembled in Kraków only during the imminent collapse of Austria-Hungary (1909), on the initiative of patriotic composer and music director Feliks Nowowiejski (born 1877).

[7][8] Over the years, the Orchestra has made a host of popular recordings, among them, with music by Dmitri Shostakovich, Ignacy Jan Paderewski, Gaetano Donizetti, Mieczysław Karłowicz, Karol Szymanowski, Max Bruch, Grażyna Bacewicz, Henryk Górecki, Stanisław Moniuszko and others.

Their concerts were led by the most prominent Polish conductors including Zygmunt Latoszewski, Bohdan Wodiczko, Witold Rowicki, Kazimierz Kord, Jerzy Maksymiuk, Krzysztof Penderecki, Antoni Wit, and from abroad: Hermann Abendroth, Nikolai Anosov, Roger Désormière, Dean Dixon, Antal Doráti, Christopher Hogwood, Konstantin Ivanov, Paweł Klecki, Kirill Kondrashin, Rafael Kubelík, Gilbert Levine, Jean Martinon, Sir John Pritchard, Helmuth Rilling, Jerzy Semkow, Giuseppe Sinopoli, and Carlo Zecchi.

The most prominent include Victoria de los Ángeles, Cathy Berberian, Stanislav Bunin, Zara Dolukhanova, Dorothy Dorow, Sidney Harth, Gary Karr, Nigel Kennedy, Leonid Kogan, Gidon Kremer, Witold Małcużyński, Yehudi Menuhin, Midori Gotō, Shlomo Mintz, Tatiana Nikolayeva, Garrick Ohlsson, David and Igor Oistrakh, Vlado Perlemuter, Maurizio Pollini, Ruggiero Ricci, Mstislav Rostropovich, Artur Rubinstein, Isaac Stern, Henryk Szeryng, Narciso Yepes, Yo-Yo Ma, and Teresa Żylis-Gara.