Orchestre National de France
In January 1975, the creation of Radio France led to the renaming of the ensemble as the Orchestre National de France, the title the ensemble holds today. An additional new permanent orchestra, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, was also created in 1976, by merging several smaller ensembles. This allowed the Orchestre National de France to concentrate on obtaining international prestige, without a music director, but with noted guest conductors such as Leonard Bernstein, Wolfgang Sawallisch and Seiji Ozawa. In 1977, Lorin Maazel became principal guest conductor ("premier chef invité"), and he officially became music director in 1988, holding the title until 1991.