The orchestra of the Hessian State Theatre Wiesbaden was formed in 1958 from two previously independent orchestras: the theater orchestra, which was founded at the beginning of the 19th century, absorbed the dissolved Biebrich court orchestra in 1842 and ultimately comprised 76 musicians, and the municipal spa and symphony orchestra, which was founded in 1872 as the spa and ball orchestra, with 48 musicians. It was given 90 permanent positions and since then has not only appeared as an accompanying orchestra for theater events (opera, ballet, drama), but also performs symphonic concerts several times a year in the tradition of the municipal spa and symphony orchestra. The choir of the city of Wiesbaden is also involved. A separate chamber music formation uses the foyer of the Staatstheater, but can also be heard in the thalhaus in the Nero Valley. During Oleg Caetani's tenure, the orchestra was upgraded to Group A under collective bargaining law. The orchestra currently consists of 78 members.

Contact with young people is particularly important to the musicians. In addition to special youth concerts, there are the extremely successful "Play and Music" events and the "move@school" project has already taken place three times.

General Music Directors and their terms of office were: Karl Elmendorff (1952-56), Arthur Apelt (1956-58), Wolfgang Sawallisch (1958-60), Heinz Wallberg (1961-73), Siegfried Köhler (1974-88), Ulf Schirmer (1988-92), Oleg Caetani (1992-95), Jonathan Nott (1995-1996), Toshiyuki Kamioka (1996-2004), Marc Piollet (2004-12), Zsolt Hamar (2012-16).