bamberger symphoniker

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Jakub Hrůša
© Andreas Herzau

Chief Conductor Jakub Hrůša

In September 2016, Jakub Hrůša assumed musical direction of the Bamberg Symphony. »I am very happy that in Jakub Hrůša we have been able to secure a musical director for the Bavarian State Philharmonic in Bamberg who is young and also enjoys a high profile«, says Bavaria's Minister for the Arts, Dr. Ludwig Spaenle. »The position of Chief Conductor of the Bamberg Symphony is extremely demanding; more than any other musician, he is responsible for the artistic standards of this exceptional orchestra. In view of the Bamberg Symphony’s history, which saw its members move from Prague to Bamberg after the war, the new Chief Conductor bridges once more, 70 years after the foundation of the Orchestra, its past and its present.«

»I am truly delighted to be Chief Conductor of the Bamberg Symphony«, says Jakub Hrůša. »Even before I had a chance to conduct this jewel among European orchestras, I had been a huge admirer. They are an embodiment of orchestral culture, with everything imagined by this term. And with the Orchestra having its origins in Prague, we breathe the same musical air, sharing our cultural backgrounds, being artistically and historically very close. With the Bamberg Symphony, every phrase can turn to be a little miracle, and every concert is a transfiguration.«

"Downright blazing with passion, energy and power" at the 2019 BBC Proms, The Times wrote about Jakub Hrůša, born in Brno in the Czech Republic. He is Principal Guest Conductor of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra and, from the 21/22 season, of the Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia Rome, previously of the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra and the Philharmonia Orchestra. From 2009-2015 he was music director and principal conductor of PKF-Prague Philharmonia.

He is a frequent guest with many of the world’s greatest orchestras: the Viennaand Berlin Philharmonic Orchestras, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, the Boston Symphony, the Chicago Symphony and the Cleveland Orchestra, the Orchestre de Paris, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, the NHK Symphony Orchestra and the Munich Philharmonic. He hasalso conducted concerts with the GewandhausorchesterLeipzig, the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresen, the DSO Berlin, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the ORF Radio Symphony Orchestra Vienna, the Filarmonica della Scala, the Lucerne Festival Orchestra as well as the San Francisco Symphony and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Immediate re-invitations followed everywhere.

As an opera conductor, Jakub Hrůša regularly appears at the Glyndebourne Festival and was Music Director of "Glyndebourne on Tour" for three years. He has conducted productions at the Vienna State Opera, Opéra National de Paris, Frankfurt Opera, Finnish National Opera, Royal Danish Opera and Prague National Theatre. In the 2017/2018 season,he performed again at the Paris Opera as well as at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London. At the beginning of the 2019/2020 season, he made his debut with Leoš Janáček’s "The Makropulos Affair" at Zurich Opera.

Jakub Hrůša studied conducting at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. He is President of the International Martinů Circle and the Dvořák Society,and lives in London with his wife and two children. In 2020,he received the Antonín Dvořák Prize of the Czech Academy of Classical Music,and was the first to receive the Sir Charles Mackerras Prize in 2015.