The Ulyanovsk State Academic Symphony Orchestra was formed in 1968. 
Due to the high level of performing the orchestra soon became known as the best band of the Volga region of Russia. Subsequently, having reached high professional standards, the Ulyanovsk State Symphony Orchestra became the winner of the All-Russia competition (1974), and then the winner of the All-Union Competition (1976) of professional orchestras of the Soviet Union. Today, the Orchestra line-up numbers 107 people. Each concert season the Orchestra gives over 65 concerts. Talented musicians of the orchestra have organized various instrumental ensembles that have become famous. Among them is the winner of the All-Union competition and 3 international competitions (including France and Germany contests) - a famous brass quintet “ Volga-brass”, a jazz brass band "Akademik-band” known in Russia and abroad, a string quartet and a chamber string orchestra.

In 1993 the Russian Ministry of Culture awarded the Orchestra the highest honorary title of "Academic", which is given only to the best and highly qualified professional orchestras of the country. In 2005 the orchestra received a new status - "of the Governor". The Ulyanovsk State Academic Symphony Orchestra of the Governor is included in a group of creative collectives of Russia called "Star of Russia's province”. It belongs to the largest and most reputable non-capital Russian symphony orchestras.

The orchestra has a diverse repertoire. Its high creative potential explains the constant interest of the world-class performers and conductors to the Simbirsk orchestra. Many eminent Russian conductors gave concerts with the orchestra. Among them are Kirill Kondrashin, Evgeny Svetlanov, Vladimir Fedoseev, Fuat Mansurov, Yuri Temirkanov, Valery Gergiev, Mariss Jansons, as well as foreign conductors such as Olivier Kyuande (Switzerland), Maria Eklund (Sweden) and others. Mstislav Rostropovich worked with the orchestra as a soloist and as a conductor several times.

Prominent musicians have played with the orchestra. Among them are: pianists Nikolai Petrov, Evgeny Kissin, Nikolai Lugansky, violinists Igor Oistrakh, Oleg Kagan, Andrei Korsakov, Maxim Fedotov, cellists Natalia Gutman, Alexander Kniazev, Mark Drobinsky (France) and others, as well as the celebrated Russia's leading choirs such as: Russian State Academic Choir named after Sveshnikov, Russian Academic Choir named after A. Yurlov, the St. Petersburg Academic Choir named after M. Glinka, the State Academic Choir of Belarus, the Magnitogorsk State Academic Choir named after S. Eydinov, and others.

Throughout its history the Ulyanovsk regional Philharmonic Orchestra has participated in numerous music festivals in Moscow, St. Petersburg, the Baltic countries, the Urals, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan. There were repeatedly conducted the visiting plenums of the Composers Union of the USSR and Russia, where the Orchestra had performed the premieres of many compositions of Russian composers: T. Khrennikov, Aram Khachaturian, A. Eshpai, B. Tchaikovsky, A. Babajanian, Frenkel, Kabalevsky - attended by the authors themselves. 
The Orchestra has received wide recognition outside the Russian borders. The first foreign tour of the Orchestra was in 1975. The orchestra successfully presented its professional art in Bulgaria, Slovenia, Croatia, South Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, France (2003, 2004), Sweden and Norway (2004), Spain (2004-2008), Germany (2005), Switzerland ( 2007), Portugal (2008), Finland (2008).

Conductor: Oleg Zverev

As of the season 2012/13 Oleg Zverev is Music Director and Chief Conductor of the Ulyanovsk State Symphony Orchestra.

Such as the current great and internationally celebrated russian conductors, he as well went through the school of the prestigious St. Petersburg Conservatory. 

After his engagement as Chief Conductor of the Altaj State Symphony Orchestra in Barnaul, he had been Music Director and Chief Conductor of the Irkutsk State Philharmonic Orchestra from 1990 until 2009. With this orchestra he embarked on numerous tours of his native Russia, Japan and Western European countries – such as three times with outstanding success in Germany and Switzerland (tour organisation Konzertdirektion Landgraf 2003, 2005, 2008). In addition the orchestra was a regular guest at renowned international music festivals. Since Zverev took over, the Irkutsk State Philharmonic grew into one of Russia’s foremost and most prominent orchestras, explicitly honoured as such by the Moscow based magazine KULTURA. 

On the occasion of big oratorio concerts he worked together with famous Russian choirs, such as the Russian National Choir or the Academic State Choir “Alexander Yurlov Capella Moscow” as well as with the Belorussian National Choir or abroad with the Choir of the Prefecture of Ishikava/Japan et al.

Guest conducting engagements led Zverev to Japan, Australia, Germany, Poland, the United States of America and Switzerland. In Russia he conducted the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, the Tchaikovsky Radio Symphony Orchestra Moscow, the orchestra of the Opera Studio Rimskij-Korsakov St. Petersburg and the Symphonic Orchestra of Omsk. The Mussorgsky Theatre in St. Petersburg and the Opera House in Novosibirsk invited him to conduct opera performances.

As a lecturer he was teaching masters classes in Eugene/ USA and in Melbourne/Australia where he directed as well the Orchestra of the New Monash University Melbourne within the first International Mahlerfest. Furthermore he advanced young musical talents in projects with the Polska Orkiestra Sinfonia Iuventus (Warsaw / Poland), the Orchestra of the St. Petersburg Conservatory or with the Youth Orchestra of Barnaul founded by himself.

Actual projects include concerts with the Russian State Philharmonic Wolgograd, the Young Russian Philharmonic St. Petersburg (National Youth Orchestra of Russia), Arthur Rubinstein Lodz Philharmonic Orchestra, Torunska Orkiestra Symfoniczna, Breslauer Kammersolisten and the Festival Orchestra Berlin. Concert tours with the Ulyanovsk State Symphony Orchestra will lead to Spain (april 2014) as well as to Germany and Switzerland (october 2015).

In 1996 Oleg Zverev was honoured as ‘Artist of Great Merit of the Russian Federation’. 

In this December, Ulyanovsk State Symphony Orchestra will come to China to give 7 new-year’s concerts to celebrate the new-year with Chinese audience. The concert tour is as follows:

2015-12-28 19:30 Yixing Poly Grand Theatre

2015-12-29 19:30 Taizhou Poly Grand Theatre

2015-12-30 19:30 Changzhou Grand Theatre

2015-12-31 19:30 Changshu Grand Theatre

2016-1-1  19:30 Shanghai Daning Theatre

2016-1-2  19:30 Wuhan Qintai Grand Theatre

2015-1-3  19:30 Changsha Concert Hall

Programm:

FIRST PART: Masterpieces of Russian Ballet Music

1. Nutcracker Suite op. 71a

2. Excerpts from “The Sleeping Beauty” op. 66a:

Panorama and Waltz

3. Excerpts from “Swan Lake” op. 20a:

Four Little Swans

Hungarian Dance

Scene No. 6

SECOND PART: A Russian Musical Firework