Over the years, SUSO has been conducted by many prominent conductors, including Eric Gross, Peter Platt, Ben Macpherson, Nicholas Routley and Colin Piper. Through its longstanding connection with the University's Department of Music, the orchestra has performed works of prominent Australian composers including Anne Boyd, Ross Edwards, Peter Sculthorpe and Matthew Hindson.

In 1999, the orchestra was registered as an official student society of the University of Sydney Union and is run by a nine-member student committee. The orchestra has in the last few years performed a varied programme including works by Bizet, Grieg, Britten, Mussorgsky, Mozart, Schubert, Elgar and Shostakovich. Highlights include performances of Carl Orff's Carmina Burana in collaboration with the Sydney University Musical Society, Sergei Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf under the stars in the University's sandstone quadrangle, and George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue with renowned Australian pianist, Kathryn Selby.

Since 2006, SUSO has been under the musical direction of George Ellis, who has conducted many of Australia's finest orchestras, including the Sydney Symphony, Queensland, Tasmanian Symphony and West Australian Symphony Orchestras.