Led by their Artistic Director and Chief Conductor Dmitry Liss for over 25 years, the orchestra is famous for its particular sound and performance excellence, both of classical and contemporary repertoires.
UPO touring history includes over 20 countries and such venues as the Pleyel, Arsenal de Metz, Théâtre Claude Debussy, Corum (Montpellier), Palais des congrès de Paris, Berliner Philharmonie, Elbphilharmonie, Essen Philharmonic, Konzerthaus, Vienna, Brucknerhaus Linz, Royal Concertgebouw, Auditorio de Murcia, Beethovenhalle, Tokyo Bunka Kaikan, Tokyo International Forum, Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre, the Swiss Culture and Congress Center, John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Tonhalle, Zürich and Victoria Hall (Geneva), Queen Elizabeth Hall, Grand Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, Saint Petersburg Philharmonia, Mariinsky Theatre, and others.
Ural Philharmonic Orchestra collaborated with conductors Dmitri Kitayenko, Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Krzysztof Penderecki, Leif Segerstam, Mikhail Pletnev, Vladimir Fedoseyev, Alexander Lazarev, Valery Gergiev, Klaus Tennstedt, Jean-Claude Casadesus, Inoue Michiyoshi, Hansjörg Albrecht, Fabio Mastrangelo, Eliahu Inbal, Andrey Boreyko, Gintaras Rinkevičius, Dimitris Botinis and soloists Mstislav Rostropovich, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Nikolai Petrov, Yuri Bashmet, Viktor Tretyakov, Elisso Virsaladze, Natalia Gutman, Liana Isakadze, Alexander Knyazev, Boris Andrianov, Peter Donohoe, Olga Borodina, Alena Baeva, Benjamin Grosvenor, Henri Demarquette, Olga Peretyatko, Behzod Abduraimov, Boris Berezovsky, Vadim Repin, Nikolai Lugansky, Denis Matsuev, Freddy Kempf, Sergey Krylov, Olga Peretyatko, Branford Marsalis, Dmitry Masleev, Vadym Kholodenko, and other distinguished artists.
In different years, UPO collaborated with Toshio Hosokawa, Ivan Fedele, Alexander Tchaikovsky, Leonid Desyatnikov, René Koering, Eun-Hwa Cho, Anton Batagov, and Olga Viktorova.
The orchestra's repertoire has included works by Yuri Falik, Sofia Gubaidulina, Valentin Silvestrov, Avet Terteryan, Arvo Pärt, Galina Ustvolskaya, Nikolay Myaskovsky, Sergei Rachmaninov, Sergei Prokofiev, Dmitri Shostakovich, Igor Stravinsky, Olivier Messiaen, Kaija Saariaho, Krzysztof Penderecki, Gia Kancheli, Rodion Schedrin, Alfred Schnittke, Philip Glass, John Adams, Gabriel Prokofiev.