The roots of the Tübingen Academic Orchestra go back to the "Akademischer Musikverein" founded by Friedrich Silcher.

It is not only musically ambitious: In recent years, the student orchestra has repeatedly surprised audiences with unusual program concepts. Works by Bernstein, Gershwin and Copland came together under the motto "American Dances", as did Richard Strauss' tone poem of the same name and Berg's violin concerto under the theme "Death and Transfiguration".

Invitations to the European Church Music Festival Schwäbisch Gmünd, the International Jazz Festival Meersburg and the "Festival International de Musique Universitaire de Marrakech" (FIMUM) in Morocco, the USA, the University of Bologna and most recently Gabon have meant new challenges, variety and fun for 75 musicians from all faculties of the university; further concert tours have taken them to numerous European countries (Austria, France, Denmark, Poland).

As the number of members has grown steadily in recent years, the orchestra is now increasingly turning to large-scale repertoire, preferably from the High Romantic period. In the past, it has performed Britten's War Requiem, Mahler's 1st Symphony and the overture from Richard Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg.