The Stresa Festival Orchestra executed its first works in public on August 26, 2003 with the semi-staged version of Mozart's Don Giovanni, with a big cast of singers. The following evening, a symphonic program assembled Mendelssohn's Sinfonia Italiana with Stravinsky's Pulcinella and the Secondo Concertoby Petrassi, the great Italian composer who passed away during 2003 at the age of 90.

During the 2004 Festival the Orchestra performed two concerts, September 2, at the Conference Hall in Stresa and September 3 at the Auditorium La Fabbrica in Villadossola.
The first date was with Mozart and the semi-staged version of Così fan tutte conducted by Gianandrea Noseda, which repeated the success of the opera staged in 2003, and the same was for the symphonic concert, this also conducted by Noseda, with works by Prokofiev (Classical Symphony), Schönberg (Kammersymphonie n. 2) and Mozart ('Prague' Symphony). At last, a smaller Ensemble of the Settimane Musicali di Stresa, conducted by Mattia Rondelli, met the audience at the Rocca di Angera, performing Berio (Folk songs) and Stravinsky (The Soldier's Tale).

The Orchestra delle Settimane Musicali conducted by Gianandrea Noseda opened the 2005 Festival with Te Deum by Arvo Pärt and Symphony no. 9 by Beethoven, with Alessandra Marianelli's, Laura Polverelli's, Evgheny Akimov's and Peter Mattei's voices e and with Marco Berrini's Ars Cantica Choir. On August 22 the semi-staged version of Le Nozze di Figaro closed the trilogy of works written by Mozart and Da Ponte.

In 2006 the first concert of the Festival Orchestra was the semi-staged version of The Magic Flute, speaker Michele Placido.
The orchestra conducted by Gianandrea Noseda performed the concert with Michela Cescon acting Monica Luccisano's monologue taken from William Shakespeare's Hamlet with the incidental music Hamlet op. 32a by Shostakovich.
The Orchestra final effort was Mozart's last year: three concerts in one weekend, when all the works the Austrian composer wrote in the year of his death were performed (dances and contradances, chamber music and orchestral works).

In 2007 our orchestra was involved thrice at Stresa Congress Hall, the first with Barbara Frittoli in a concert dedicated to Schubert entitled Unfinished, during which the winning orchestration of the Composition Competion was performed, the second with Michele Placido in Fables in music, during which the Competion's winning Composition was premièred and the third in the semi-staged version of Mozart's La clemenza di Tito. All the events were under the baton of Gianandrea Noseda.

In 2008 the Festival Orchestra, conducted by Gianandrea Noseda, performes three events. For the opening concerts Shostakovich's Symphony (with the soprano Nicola Beller Carbone and the bass Arutjun Kotchinian) and Beethoven's Symphony were featured. On August 28 the Orchestra performed Stravinskij's Violin concerto (violin solo Thomas Zehetmair)and Mahler's Fourth symphony (soprano Sally Matthews) while the semi-staged opera was Stravinsky's The rake's progress.

In 2009 our orchestra was engaged in Rossini's La Cenerentola, under the baton of Gianandrea Noseda, with Vivica Genaux, Natale de Carolis, Maxim Mironov and Nicola Ulivieri.

In 2010 the Stresa Festival Orchestra performed the semi-staged version of Mozart's Idomeneo with Francesco Meli, Laura Polverelli, Alessandra Marianelli, Francesca Sassu and Alessandro Liberatore. In the final concert the orchestra played with an extraordinary Leonodas Kavakos executing Shostakovich's Violin concerto no. 1. Both concerts were conducted by our Artistic Director Gianandrea Noseda.

In 2011 our orchestra, conducted as usual with true passion by Gianandrea Noseda, was engaged in the Festival opening concert on August 21, with the pianist Alexander Toradze and performed the semi-staged version of Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor at the Congress Hall on August 25.

In 2012 our orchestra has taken a break. The Stresa Festival Ensemble performed instead: on September 1 they accompanied Laura Catrani and Matthias Stier together with the "storyteller" Silvia Frasson, in the world première opera, commissioned by the Festival to Andrea Portera, entitled Tagete e la Terra dell'Arcobaleno. For the first time ever, the ensemble was not led by Gianandrea Noseda, but by conductor on the rise Daniele Rustioni.

On Wednesday, August 28, 2013, in its unique concert, the Stresa Festival Orchestra, once again conducted by the Festival Artistic Director, performed the Aria from Suite for orchestra no. 3 by Bach, Schubert's Symphony no. 5 and Mozart's Symphony no. 40.