The performance is the third stop on the orchestra's first U.S. tour, which started in Troy and Binghamton, New York, and Worcester, Massachusetts, and continues in Lexington, Kentucky (October 26), Kansas City (October 29), and Lewisville, Pennsylvania (October 30).

From 1933 to 1995, the ensemble was a privately owned radio symphony, known as the RTL Symphony Orchestra. In 1996 it was taken over by the government and renamed the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg (OPL).

Tovey, who is also the music director of the Vancouver Symphony (and formerly of the Winnipeg Symphony) became director of the OPL in 2002. The orchestra's new home, the Philharmonie: with a 1,200-seat concert hall and a 300-seat chamber music hall, as well as a small space for electronic and new music: will open in 2005.