It hosts an annual subscription series of concerts in the Michael Fowler Centre, performing varied repertoire from the Classical, Romantic and contemporary periods.

The orchestra commissions and performs works by New Zealand composers, with John Psathas ONZM the current composer-in-residence.

With Leon de Mauny conducting, it put on its first concert in the Wellington Town Hall later that year in the presence of the Governor General.

[4] By 1940, losses from dwindling audiences and subscriptions partly due to the advent of World War II had threatened the orchestra with closure, and it ceased performing in 1941.

[5][6] The establishment of the National Orchestra in 1946, combined with a lack of players, made its revival untenable.