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With a history as a broadcast orchestra stretching back to the post-World War II era, the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin has also became a major concert attraction. The group has attracted an international set of chief conductors and has often added contemporary works to its repertory.

Ultimately responsible for the orchestra's founding was the government of the American military occupation in West Berlin, which established the RIAS (Radio in the American Sector) broadcaster in 1946. The radio station in turn assembled an orchestra that by 1948 was well established and had hired its first permanent conductor, the Hungarian Ferenc Fricsay. He remained in his post until 1954. The orchestra underwent a period of instability in the mid-'50s as West and East Berlin dealt with forced cultural separation. It was renamed the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra in 1956 and became the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin in 1993, after German reunification. Fricsay returned from 1959 to 1963, often programming the music of Bartók and doing much to foster that composer's international popularity. His successors included the American Lorin Maazel (1964-1975), the Italian Riccardo Chailly (1982-1989), and the Russian-Icelandic Vladimir Ashkenazy (1989-1999); with the exception of Ingo Metzmacher (2007-2010), none of the orchestra's principal conductors has been German. The orchestra's leaders in the modern era have also included the American contemporary music specialist Kent Nagano (2000-2006), the Russian Tugan Sokhiev (2012-2016), and as of 2017, the Briton Robin Ticciati.

The orchestra still broadcasts on the radio but offers a full concert season, mostly at the Philharmonie in Berlin. Its recording catalog is large and includes a 2011 recording of music by Kaija Saariaho, conducted by Nagano, that won a Grammy award. Ticciati led the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin in a performance of Bruckner's Symphony No. 6 in A major released on Scotland's Linn label in 2019; the orchestra has also recorded for CPO, Sony Classical, Capriccio, and other labels. ~ James Manheim

Peter Ruzicka is an important contemporary German composer whose early music divulged the influence of Stockhausen, Henze, and Hans Otte, the last two of whom were his composition teachers in the 1960s. But from 1970 Ruzicka forged a different path under the influence of Mahler and Webern (and poet Paul Celan, who inspired several works). Yet the expressive language of his music has remained challenging, with its eerie sonorities, long Webern-esque pauses, and bleak character. Ruzicka also incorporated the notion after 1970 that music must come from (previous) music, believing that the evolution of compositional techniques from the 1950s and 1960s had effectively stalled. Thus, he often derived material for his works from some composition out of the past, as in his Metamorphosen über ein Klangfeld von Joseph Haydn (1990). As a conductor Ruzicka has led many of Europe's finest ensembles, including the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Bavarian Radio Symphony, Czech Philharmonic, Danish National, and many others. Ruzicka has recorded for Koch Schwann, CPO, Musicaphon, and Col Legno Records.

Peter Ruzicka was born in Düsseldorf, Germany, on July 3, 1948. He studied music at the Hamburg Conservatory, focusing on piano, oboe, and composition. His first works began appearing from 1967. Still, Ruzicka sought out further studies, taking courses in musicology, theater, and law(!), eventually obtaining a doctorate in law in 1977.

From 1979-1987 he served as artistic director of the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra. Throughout this period and in the years that followed, Ruzicka freelanced as a conductor in Germany and parts of Europe, but his compositional output turned relatively meager in the 1980s. From 1988-1997 Ruzicka was artistic director of both the Hamburg Philharmonic and Hamburg State Opera.

From 1990 Ruzicka has served as professor of music at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Hamburg. With the appearance of orchestral works like Tallis, premiered in 1993 by Giuseppe Sinopoli and the Philharmonia Orchestra in Kiel, and Inseln, Randlos, premiered by violinist Christian Tetzlaff, conductor Vladimir Ashkenazy, and the Deutsches Symphonieorchester and RIAS-Kammerchor in 1997 (and recorded in 1999 on the Thorofon label), Ruzicka gained impressive international notice. In the new century, Ruzicka has produced several large works, like his opera Holderin (2006-2007). Among the recordings of his works is the 2008 Thorofon CD of ...Ins Offene..., Sturz and Tombeau, with the Arditti String Quartet, flutist Kornelia Brandkamp, and Ruzicka leading the Kammerphilharmonie Bremen.