The roots of the Filharmonie Brno go back to the 1870s, when the young Leoš Janácek endeavoured to establish a Czech symphony orchestra in Brno. The works of the famous twentieth-century composer constitute thecore of the orchestra’s repertory, and to this day the Filharmonie Brno considers itself to be the authentic performer of his oeuvre. The present orchestra was created in 1956 by merging the Brno-based Radio and Regional orchestras, and since then has been among the leading Czech orchestras in terms of both size and importance. On its tours abroad, it has performed about a thousand concerts throughout Europe, the United States of America, Latin America, and both the Middle and Far East. Throughout its history, the orchestra has had a number of Czech and international conductors, including Bretislav Bakala, František Jílek, Petr Altrichter, Jirí Belohlávek, Jakub Hruša, Tomáš Netopil, Charles Munch, Kurt Masur, Sir Charles Mackerras and Yehudi Menuhin. Maestro Dennis Russell Davies has been recently appointed the orchestra’s new chief conductor and artistic director beginning with the 2018/2019 season. Its home is the beautiful Besední dum (former civic house), the Brno counterpart to Vienna’s Musikverein, built in 1873 according to a design by Theophil Hansen, though the orchestra is now looking forward to its new modern concert hall, which is being designed by a team led by the acoustician Yasuhisa Toyota.