On 1 August 1947, Chávez appointed Blas Galindo as the new director of the National Conservatory, official seat of the new orchestra.

Chávez reports that the National Symphony Orchestra gave its first official performance on 30 October 1947 at the Palace of Fine Arts, under the baton of Eduardo Hernández Moncada, its first music and artistic director.

After Gen. Venustiano Carranza took over the national government's seat back to Mexico City in 1915, the orchestra took the name of National Symphony, and depended from the Bellas Artes bureau, and its director during this period was Jesús Acuña, followed by composer Manuel M. Ponce but he declined and the orchestra suspended the concert seasons.

Carlos Chávez was appointed as its first conductor, but it lacked of any financial support, besides that the orchestra wasn't being well administrated by the city's musician syndicate of that time.

With 103 musicians on stage, the program included Debussy's Ibéria Suite, Tello's Sonata Tragica, Tchaikovsky´s Piano Concerto No.

On November 23, 1946, president Miguel Alemán proposed the creation of the National Institute of Fine Arts and Literature (Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes y Literatura), known by the acronym INBA, and was formally opened on 1 January 1947, as a branch of the Secretaría de Educación Pública, (SEP) (Secretariat of Public Education).

On January 19, 1949, Chávez resigned his job as conductor of the Symphony Orchestra of Mexico, to spend more of his time composing and directing the INBA, but the orchestra didn't disappear, because Chávez succeeded in making the government recognize a national ensemble (working on this issue, since he was appointed as head of the INBA), so the actual organization known as National Symphony Orchestra of México was established, and Eduardo Hernández Moncada was designated its first conductor in 1947, José Pablo Moncayo replaced him in 1949.

After him served Jose Guadalupe Flores from 1985 to 1986, followed by Francisco Savín from 1986 to 1988, and from 1989 to 1990 Luis Herrera de la Fuente returned.

Didactic concerts for kids, concerts with worldwide renowned soloists like Jorge Federico Osorio, Frederica von Stade and violin virtuoso Itzhak Perlman were held by the orchestra in these years, and in 2002 the orchestra was nominated for Latin Grammy award for Best Classical Album.

In early 2008 he led it on its first European tour in years, culminating with an acclaimed[citation needed] concert at Amsterdam's renowned Concertgebouw Hall.