Formed in 2000 with most of the musicians being university students, the Milan State University Orchestra has – under its Music Director Alessandro Crudele – become one of the leading youth orchestras in Italy, representing a new venture on the Italian music scene.
In its first ten years, Milan State University Orchestra has collaborated with a number of principals of the La Scala Orchestra, as soloists, and internationally acclaimed conductors or soloists such as Petr Altrichter, Paul Badura-Skoda, Mario Brunello, Natalie Clein, Enrico Dindo, Bernhard Güller, Viviane Hagner.
On 30 July 2003 the Orchestra records at the Auditorium di Milano, with the soprano Alda Caiello, “In pace, in canto” composed by Fabio Vacchi for the soundtrack of the film by Ermanno Olmi, “Cantando dietro i paraventi”.
On 1st June 2004, to celebrate the University’s 80th anniversary, for the first time the Orchestra holds a special concert at the prestigious Auditorium di Milano and, as from the next season, this venue becomes the Orchestra’s second home.
In November 2004 the Milan State University Orchestra meets opera, opening its fifth season with a concert performance of Gioacchino Rossini’s comic farce “Il signor Bruschino” conducted and semi-staged by Alessandro Crudele.
From the 2001/2002 season to the 2005/2006 season, the Orchestra also devotes itself to sacred music, every year performing an Easter concert in the Romanesque basilica of S. Nazaro Maggiore in Milan.
In May 2006 the Orchestra performs a special concert for the 250th anniversary of Mozart’s birth, in the baroque basilica of S. Antonio, on whose organ Mozart composed his Exultate Jubilate.
In September 2007 the Orchestra takes part in the first edition of the MITO International Milan and Turin Music Festival.
On 15th April 2009, the Milan State University Orchestra performs a concert at the Zurich Tonhalle with the British cellist Natalie Clein as soloist.