Frans Brüggen and Lucy van Dael co-founded the orchestra in 1981.
As of August 2014, the orchestra consisted of 55 members, from many different countries, who all play on period instruments.
The group was formed as a collective, so all orchestra members and the conductor receive equal shares of concert earnings.
The orchestra does not audition its members, but receives them through word-of-mouth invitations.
[1] The orchestra has toured widely both in Europe and America and recorded extensively with Philips Classics, including symphonies of Beethoven,[3] Haydn[4] and Mozart.