Since then its work has set a benchmark standard in its pursuit of excellence and its close rapport with all its audiences: it has brought orchestral music to more than 250 local areas of Hauts-de-France. Acting as an ambassador for its region and for French culture, it has been invited to appear in more than 30 countries in four continents.

Today numbering 100 musicians, and carried forwards since 2016 by the infectious energy of its Chief Conductor and Music Director Alexandre Bloch, the orchestra is constantly expanding its ambitious symphonic music projects. True to its missionary spirit, the ONL helps to disseminate the major repertoire, as well as the music of today, through its composers-in-residence scheme.

In order to be accessible to as many as possible and to foster diversity among its audiences, the Orchestra presents innovative concert formats and a wide range of related background activities for concertgoers.

The ONL has a dynamic audiovisual approach, thanks to the high-tech digital studio with which it has been equipped. Since 2014 it has recorded a dozen albums, such as the album Yes with French soprano Julie Fuchs. For Naxos it has issued a Saint-Saëns album, and the Symphonies nos. 1 and 2 by Dutilleux, while in 2017 trumpeter Lucienne Renaudin-Vary made her recording debut with the Orchestra on Warner Classics. In 2018 Bizet’s opera The Pearl Fishers, conducted by Alexandre Bloch, appeared on Pentatone – a recording that has garnered a great many plaudits from the critics, including a Choc Classica, a Diapason d’Or and a Clic from classiquenews. March 2019 saw the release on Alpha Classics of an internationally acclaimed Chausson CD featuring soprano Véronique Gens, again with conductor Alexandre Bloch.

ONL is subsidized by Région Hauts-de-France, Ministère de la Culture, Métropole Européenne de Lille and Ville de Lille.