中央民族乐团成立于一九六○年，首任团长为中国音乐家协会主席、著名作曲家李焕之。乐团由民族管弦乐队、民歌合唱队、创作研究室等部门组成。
乐团涌现出了诸如秦鹏章、王铁锤、张黎、刘文金、姜嘉锵、胡炳旭、阎惠昌等著名音乐家，并拥有一大批在国内国际大赛中获奖的优秀青年民族音乐人才。国内外著名音乐家严良堃、韩中杰、鲍蕙乔、陈澄雄、三木稔、朴范薰等都曾与乐团进行过合作演出。
建团以来，乐团的演出遍及全国各地，并应邀到美国、前苏联、英国、法国、德国、奥地利、丹麦、西班牙、希腊、南斯拉夫、日本、韩国、朝鲜、新加坡等国家及香港、澳门、台湾地访问演出，受到国内外听众的高度讚扬，曾荣获第六届和第十三届青年联欢节最高荣誉金奖。一九九三年，与日本音乐集团、韩国国立国乐管弦乐团共同创建了亚洲乐团，以促进亚洲民族音乐的创作和交流。
一九九五年春节，乐团首创了具有浓郁中国民族特色的《新春音乐会》，获得广泛讚誉。此后，一年一度的《新春音乐会》成为每年春节期间的民族音乐盛会。
一九九七年，乐团应邀赴美国纽约、华盛顿、芝加哥、洛杉矶、三藩市等十七个城市进行巡迴演出，并在纽约卡内基音乐厅演出，成为第一个入主卡内基音乐厅的中国乐团，引起轰动。《纽约时报》、《洛杉矶时报》等美国最有影响的报刊纷纷发表乐评，盛讚乐团的精湛演奏。一九九八年春节，乐团赴奥地利维也纳金色大厅举办了《中国虎年新年音乐会》，一九九九年春节，乐团再度赴奥地利维也纳金色大厅举办了《中国兔年新年音乐会》，并在德国柏林爱乐大厅和丹麦等世界著名的音乐厅进行了极为成功的演出，受到了广泛讚誉，标志著中国民乐已经走向世界。
National Traditional Orchestra of China Founded in 1960 with the famous musician Ll Huanzhi as the first leader. The orchestra was consisted of a Chinese orchestra, a choir and composing and researching units etc.
In the past years, many many great musicians and performers were trained and brought up by the orchestra. A great number of famous musicians and conductors in China and from overseas had cooperated with it too.
The orchestra had toured and performed successfully around the world. It won the gold medals in the 6’h and 13’h World Youth Festival. In 1993, it jointly founded the Asian Orchestra w ith another orchestra in Japan and Korea.
In 1995, the first New Year Concert was successfully held by the orchestra and set up this most popular series of concerts in the coming years.
In 1997, it toured around 17 cities in the USA and was the first Chinese orchestra that performed in the world famous Carnegie Hall.
In 1998 and 1999, it performed the New Year Concerts in the Vienna Golden Hall and again was the first Chinese orchestra. to perform there. It had also made concerts in various world famous concert halls and brought the Chinese music to the world.