[1] Until the beginning of the 20th century, the operas performed at the Municipal Theater of São Paulo were entirely foreign productions, since the venue didn't have enough instrumentalists and choirs to produce its own shows.

[2][3] The first permanent ensemble of musicians with a concert season was established in 1935 through a partnership between the Department of Culture and the Sociedade de Cultura Artística.

Soon it began to function regularly, hosting concerts and being informally called the Department of Culture Orchestra, but still without legal stability or the hiring of permanent musicians.

3,829, of December 28, 1949, legally created and renamed the São Paulo Municipal Symphony Orchestra, and in early 1950 it held its first public competition to hire musicians, who for the first time had functional stability.

Eleazar de Carvalho, Isaac Karabtchevsky, Sergio Magnani and Jamil Maluf have also played with the group, as well as soloists such as Magdalena Tagliaferro and Guiomar Novaes.