The chance to meet outstanding conductors, to study and perform orchestral literature from the Baroque through to contemporary music, and to work with professional orchestras gives students some training in orchestral play and prepares them for their future professional life. Recent years have seen various major orchestral works worked on and performed, such as An Alpine Symphony and Till Eulenspiegel by Richard Strauss, Bruckner's and Mahler's 7th symphonies, Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring, Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra, and Olivier Messiaen's Turangalîla Symphony. Notable conductors such as Stefan Asbury, Johannes Schlaefli, Marc Kissóczy, Andreas Delfs, Howard Griffiths, Vladimir Fedoseyev, Bernhard Klee, Heinz Wallberg, Ralf Weikert, and David Zinman have conducted ZHdK's Symphony Orchestra.
In terms of new music, the Arc-en-Ciel ensemble (made up of 15 to 17 musicians) has worked with Gerald Bennett, Olivier Cuendet, Peter Eötvös, Jürg Henneberger, Peter Hirsch, Véronique Lacroix, Alain Monot, Peter Rundel and Johannes Schöllhorn, as well as working on portraits of composers, among other things, with Henri Pousseur, Isabel Mundry, Wolfgang Rihm and Jonathan Harvey.
Students taking a historical option work on Baroque orchestral music. These projects were led by Elizabeth Wallfisch, Werner Erhardt, and others. In collaboration with the Research area, some partly unpublished works by Heinichen, Pisendel, and others were also performed.