In existence under its present name only since 2012, the Philharmonia Zürich has a long history connected with opera in Zurich. It was formerly known as the Zurich Opera Orchestra, and it continues to perform in operatic productions.

The origins of Philharmonia Zürich date back ultimately to 1834 when the Aktientheater Zürich was founded to promote opera performances in the city. Its conductors included Richard Wagner, who gave the premieres there of Der fliegende Holländer and Tannhäuser. After the Aktientheater burned in 1890, it was replaced by the new Stadttheater Zürich, where both Richard Strauss and Wilhelm Furtwängler conducted. Meanwhile, instrumental music was growing in Zurich with the formation of the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich in 1868; in 1944, that group merged with a Zurich radio orchestra and began to encompass concert and operatic subgroups, with the whole being known as the Tonhalle- und Theaterorchester Zürich. The theater orchestra continued to back operatic productions as the Stadttheater was renamed the Opernhaus Zürich in 1964. As both branches of the orchestra grew, they were separated into the Tonhalle Orchester and the Orchester der Oper Zürich in 1985; a new early music orchestra, La Scintilla, was also formed in 1994. Ralf Weikert served as conductor of the new opera orchestra from 1985 to 1992; he inaugurated a series of six purely orchestral concerts. In 1995, he was succeeded by future Cleveland Orchestra conductor Franz Welser-Möst, who raised the group's international profile. His successor, serving from 2009 to 2012, was Daniele Gatti, and in 2012, in recognition of its increasing activity outside the operatic sphere, the group was renamed the Philharmonia Zürich. Its conductor since then has been Fabio Luisi.

The Philharmonia Zürich and Luisi released their debut album, a recording of Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique, in 2015. The group continues to perform in productions at the Zurich Opera, but it also has a strong independent existence. In addition to orchestral concerts at the Zurich Opera House, the group maintains an academy for teaching young musicians, works with the Zurich University of the Arts, and has operated its own label, Philharmonia Records, since 2015. The orchestra has also recorded for ECM and Accentus, where it released an album of symphonies by Dvorák in 2023 under its new conductor, Gianandrea Noseda. ~ James Manheim, Rovi