The creative life of the Tbilisi State Opera Orchestra began when the opera house was built in 1851. The country's first professional orchestra, consisting of Italian performers, was led by the Italian violinist and conductor Barbieri and performed twelve Italian operas in its first season (1851-52).

From 1860 the orchestra began an independent concert life, giving symphonic concerts under the baton of Schenning and Catani. Together with the orchestra, the greatest artists performed on stage, among them Teresa Stolz, Feodor Chaliapin, Eugenio Giraldoni, Anton Rubinstein, Sergei Rachmaninoff... The orchestra took part in the performances of the theatres on tour: St. Petersburg Ballet Company (1852), Italian opera companies (1897-1898, 1910), Vienna Imperial Operetta (1903), Moscow and St. Petersburg comic operas (1907), St. Petersburg Imperial Ballet (1907, 1908, 1913).
In the 20th century, the Orchestra was conducted by such famous musicians as Yevgeny Mikeladze, Ivane and Vakhtang Paliashvili, Odysseas Dimitriadis, Givi Azmaiparashvili and Djansug Kakhidze.
In recent years, The orchestra collaborated with internationally renowned performers such as Placido Domingo, Ferruccio Furlanetto, José Carreras, Michèle Crider, Dolora Zajick, Montserrat Caballé, Paata Burchuladze, Badri Maisuradze, Lado Ataneli, Iano Tamar Alibegashvili, Alexandre Korsantia, Lexo Toradze, Eter Anjaparidze; with conductors: Arvo Volmer, Dan Ettinger, Shuya Okatsu, Fakhraddin Kerimov, Daniel Oren, Giacomo sagripanti, Mārtiņš Ozoliņš and others.
The orchestra has toured successfully to Hungary, Germany, France, Israel, Malta, Spain, Libanon, Switzerland... Together with the entire company, it has performed to great acclaim at the prestigious Dalhalla Opera Festival (Sweden), the Tore Del Lago Puccini Festival and Festival Internazionale di Mezza Estate che si terrà a Tagliacozzo (Italy), the Verdi Festival in Georgia.
Considering the high creative and professional level of the Orchestra musicians, a chamber orchestra was created in 2005, which regularly gave concerts in Georgia and abroad.  In 2019, the artists of the orchestra created the chamber orchestra OPERA CAMERATA, which intensively performs a variety of repertoire - from the Baroque era to contemporary composers.
Today, the opera orchestra has 121 artists, who often perform solo concerts as soloists or as various ensemble members. In addition to opera and ballet repertoire, the orchestra frequently gives concerts of symphonic and vocal music, takes part in state and charitable events, and collaborates with renowned contemporary conductors and performers.