On the American debut of the Swedish Chamber Orchestra at Lincoln Center in 2004 The New York Times commented: ‘It has been a longstanding complaint in the classical music world that as recordings and jet travel have shrunk the globe, an international sound has been fostered that has filtered out regional differences in timbre and interpretation... And every now and then an orchestra comes along with a sound that is surprising and fresh.’ Founded in 1995, the Orchestra was joined just two years later by its current Music Director, Thomas Dausgaard, whose drive has brought this tightly knit ensemble of thirty-eight regular members to international attention through both extensive touring and recording. Together they have given concerts throughout Japan, the USA, and Europe – most recently at the BBC Proms and Salzburger Festspiele with the Swedish soprano Nina Stemme, with whom the Orchestra in 2013 will return to Lincoln Center in New York for a concert entitled ‘Love, Hope, and Destiny’. Under Thomas Dausgaard the Swedish Chamber Orchestra has recorded the complete cycles of symphonies by Beethoven and Schumann as well as other large-scale orchestral works of the romantic era, including Bruckner’s Symphony No. 2; in 2013, with Nina Stemme, it will release a recording of works by Wagner.