The Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic Orchestra was founded as the Borusan Chamber Orchestra in 1993. This initiative by Borusan, a leading Turkish industrial conglomerate, entering into the complex and challenging world of establishing orchestras, was based on its vision of helping to bring polyphonic music to a wider audience of Turkish people. This group rapidly grew in both number of musicians and quality of musical performance, so that it became a symphonic orchestra in 1999. That same year, Maestro Gürer Aykal was appointed as the general music director and permanent conductor of the orchestra.