The Slovak State Philharmonic, Košice (SFK) was founded in 1968. In short time it ranked amongst foremost representatives of the Slovak performance art and recorded remarkable achievements on the concert stages of European countries but also in a number of substantial cities of Asia and Americas. The orchestra performs more than 60 concerts during a concert season. The Slovak State Philharmonic, Košice had concerts on the international music festivals and in the outstanding cultural centres. In 1994, SFK presented as a first Slovak symphonic orchestra in America. The orchestra worked with many foremost artists such as Valerij Gergiev, Alexander Rahbari, Jiří Bělohlávek, Thomas Sanderling, Tadeusz Strugala, Antoni Wit, Libor Pešek, Emin Khatshaturyan, Luciano Pavarotti, Plácido Domingo, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Igor Oistrakh, Gidon Kremer, Julia Fischer, Giora Feidman and others. In addition to the active concert activities, SFK presents its art through recordings for radio and television broadcasting as well as for record companies (above 160 CDs). The recordings for the publishing houses Naxos, Marco Polo and others often represent unique recordings of works seldom performed. Since 1991 SFK is the principal organiser of two international festivals: The Košice Music Spring Festival and The International Organ Festival of Ivan Sokol; and since 2003 the ARS NOVA Cassoviae – the Festival of Contemporary Art as well. The Principal Conductor of The Slovak State Philharmonic, Košice is Zbyněk Müller. He is also the conductor of the Opera of the National Theatre in Prague and cooperates with the foreign scenes as Teatro Real Madrid or Deutsche Oper am Rhein Düsseldorf-Duisburg as well.