Among Europe's best-established small orchestras, the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra is also one of the continent's busiest. The group performs about 100 concerts annually at its home base at the Salle Métropole in Lausanne and tours frequently throughout Switzerland and beyond.

The Lausanne Chamber Orchestra (in French, L'Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne) was founded in 1940 by Victor Desarzens, its first music director. Until 1953, it was associated with the Radio Suisse Romande, the French-language radio network in the western part of Switzerland. The orchestra gave its first performance in 1942 and soon flourished, attracting musicians and conductors to noncombatant Switzerland. The Lausanne Chamber Orchestra has always attracted prominent guest conductors, but it has had only seven music directors since its founding. Desarzens remained in the position until 1973, and he was succeeded by Armin Jordan (1973-1985), Lawrence Foster (1985-1990), Jesús López Cobos (1990-2000), Christian Zacharias (2000-2013), Joshua Weilerstein (2014-2020), and Renaud Capuçon (2021-). The orchestra normally fields a complement of 42 musicians, a number chosen because it was thought to correspond with the size of the groups that played Mozart's late symphonies.

The Lausanne Chamber Orchestra has been vigorously active as both a performing ensemble and a recording group. Its recording career dates back to the LP era and by the early 2020s included more than 100 albums, including a large group devoted to Haydn operas, conducted by Antal Dorati, when recordings of these were uncommon. The orchestra also recorded a group of Haydn symphonies for the Denon label and a complete cycle of Mozart's piano concertos performed and conducted by Zacharias on the audiophile label MDG. Now associated with the Lausanne Opera, the group often performs in the pit for the opera's productions. In addition to orchestral concerts in Lausanne, the orchestra often appears at such top European venues as the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris, the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, and the Vienna Musikverein. It is also a frequent guest at the BBC Proms and other major festivals. The orchestra has often recorded music by composer Frank Martin. In 2021, it released a pair of albums, one of Arvo Pärt's Tabula Rasa on the Erato label and one of works for winds by Jean Françaix on the Claves label. ~ James Manheim, Rovi