Slovak Sinfonietta Žilina was established in 1974 as the one and only orchestra of “Mozart Type” in Slovakia. Since then the orchestra has acquired an important position not only in Slovakia and Czech Republic, but in a short time it has achieved an excellent reputation also abroad. The orchestra has 35 members, mostly graduates of music academies in Prague, Brno, and Bratislava. The quality of players and the experience and mastery of the principal conductor Eduard Fischer (1930 – 1993) brought about the quick artistic growth of the orchestra. In 1977 the orchestra attained international recognition when it became the orchestra of the Salzburger Festspiele Festival. Soon it received an invitation to the Prague Spring festival, which was followed by successful performances at home and abroad.
Slovak Sinfonietta Žilina is actually a small symphony orchestra, which has in its wide repertoire compositions from the Baroque, classicism, early romanticism and 20th century music with emphasis on contemporary Slovak music. A large variety of renowned artists have performed with the Sinfonietta.
Since 2015/2016 season the chief conductor is Simon Chalk, the main conductor is Theodore Kuchar and permanent guest conductors are Oliver Dohnányi, Leoš Svárovská and Misha Katz. The honorary chief conductor since 1996 is Japanese conductor Tsugio Maeda.