The Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo (OSESP), or Symphony Orchestra of the state of São Paulo, is one of Brazil's most prominent orchestral ensembles internationally. Sometimes known in English as the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra, the group is an important exponent of Brazilian music of many kinds beyond the country's borders.

The Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo was founded in 1953 as the Orquestra Sinfônica Estadual. The orchestra's first conductor, João de Sousa Lima, held the baton through 1964. He was succeeded by Bruno Roccela (1964-1972), Eleazar de Carvalho (1972-1996, under whom the group's finances solidified, and it took its present name in 1978), John Neschling (1997-2009), Yan Pascal Tortelier (2009-2011), Marin Alsop (2012-2019; she remains honorary conductor), and Thierry Fischer (2020-). Isaac Karabtchevsky, born in 1934, has been a frequent guest conductor and has continued to appear and record with the orchestra into the 2020s. Neschling demanded a new hall, the Sala São Paulo, and inaugurated it in 1999; it remains the orchestra's home base. Neschling raised salaries and opened international auditions, and under him, the group's international profile rose. He led the group on several tours of South and North America in the early 2000s. The trend continued under Tortelier and especially Alsop, who took the orchestra to the Proms in London in 2012; it was the first Brazilian orchestra to appear there. Back home in Brazil, the orchestra founded "OSESP Itinerante," a touring program encompassing the countryside around São Paulo.

In the 2000s and early 2010s, the OSESP regularly recorded for the BIS label, focusing often but not exclusively on Brazilian music. It moved to Naxos in 2012, recording an album of works by Villa-Lobos under Karabtchevsky; the group also recorded the symphonies of Prokofiev under Alsop in the 2010s. In 2020, Karabtchevsky returned to the podium to lead the OSESP in the first volume of a new recording of the choros of composer Mozart Camargo Guarnieri. ~ James Manheim, Rovi