The first symphony ensemble without a conductor, abbreviated in Russian as "PerSimFans", was established in 1922 and remained, throughout the decade, the best orchestra in Soviet Union.

The symphony was compulsorily disbanded in 1933, but the revival of PerSimFans methods and approach to making music, spearheaded by Peter Aidu and his Music Laboratory, attests to their enduring validity and effectiveness today. The PerSimFans Now and Then: What Makes Contemporary the Practice of Playing Symphony Music Without a Conductor lecture explores the type of management, organizational principles, and way of playing represented by PerSimFans, and how these elements may give a new breath to current classical music culture.