Born in the Czech Republic, Jakub Hrůša is chief conductor of the Bamberg Symphony, music director designate of the Royal Opera, Covent Garden (music director from 2025), principal guest conductor of the Czech Philharmonic and principal guest conductor of the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia. He was also formerly principal guest conductor of the Philharmonia Orchestra and of Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra. He is the 2023 Opus Klassik Conductor of the Year.
He is a frequent guest with many of the world’s greatest orchestras, enjoying close relationships and performing regularly with the Vienna Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic, Bavarian Radio Symphony, Munich Philharmonic, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Staatskapelle Dresden, Tonhalle Orchester Zürich, Lucerne Festival Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, NHK Symphony and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, and in the United States, with the Cleveland Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Boston Symphony Orchestra.
As a conductor of opera, he has led productions for the Salzburg Festival (Kátya Kabanová with the Vienna Philharmonic), Vienna State Opera (The Makropulos Case), Royal Opera House, Covent Garden (Carmen and Lohengrin), Opéra National de Paris (Rusalka) and Zurich Opera (The Makropulos Case). He has also been a regular guest with Glyndebourne Festival, conducting Vanessa, The Cunning Little Vixen, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Carmen, The Turn of the Screw, Don Giovanni and La bohème. He also served as music director of Glyndebourne on Tour for three years. In the 23/24 season, he conducted Janacek’s Jenůfa for Lyric Opera of Chicago.
His relationships with leading vocal and instrumental soloists have included collaborations in recent seasons with Behzod Abduraimov, Piotr Anderszewski, Leif Ove Andsnes, Emanuel Ax, Lisa Batiashvili, Joshua Bell, Yefim Bronfman, Rudolf Buchbinder, Renaud Capuçon, Gautier Capuçon, Isabelle Faust, Bernarda Fink, Julia Fischer, Sol Gabetta, Véronique Gens, Christian Gerhaher, Kirill Gerstein, Karen Gomyo, Hélène Grimaud, Augustin Hadelich, Hilary Hahn, Barbara Hannigan, Alina Ibragimova, Janine Jansen, Sheku Kanneh-Mason, Leonidas Kavakos, Evgeny Kissin, Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Lang Lang, Igor Levit, Karita Mattila, Albrecht Mayer, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Stephanie d’Oustrac, Emmanuel Pahud, Beatrice Rana, Kian Soltani, Josef Špaček, Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider, Antoine Tamestit, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Daniil Trifonov, Mitsuko Uchida, Klaus Florian Vogt, Lukáš Vondráček, Yuja Wang, Alisa Weilerstein and Frank Peter Zimmermann.
As a recording artist, Hrůša has received many awards and nominations for his discography. Most recently with Bamberg Symphony, he received the ICMA Prize for Symphonic Music in both 2023 and 2022 for his recordings of Rott’s Symphony No. 1 and Bruckner’s Symphony No. 4. He was awarded the Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik for his recording of Mahler’s Symphony No. 4. In 2021, his recording of Martinů and Bartók violin concertos with Frank Peter Zimmermann was nominated for BBC Music Magazine and Gramophone awards, and his disc of the Dvořák Violin Concerto with the Bavarian Radio Symphony and Augustin Hadelich was nominated for a Grammy Award. His recordings of Dvořák and Martinů Piano Concertos with Ivo Kahánek and the Bamberg Symphony (Supraphon), and Vanessa from Glyndebourne (Opus Arte) both won BBC Music Magazine Awards in 2020.
Other recent releases include Dvořák and Brahms symphonies with Bamberg Symphony (Tudor), Suk’s Asrael Symphony with the Bavarian Radio Symphony (BR Klassik) and Dvořák’s Requiem and Te Deum with the Czech Philharmonic (Decca).
Hrůša studied conducting at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, where his teachers included Jiří Bělohlávek. He is currently president of the International Martinů Circle and the Dvořák Society, and an honorary member of the Royal Academy of Music in London. He was the inaugural recipient of the Sir Charles Mackerras Prize, and in 2020, was awarded both the Antonín Dvořák Prize by the Czech Republic’s Academy of Classical Music, and together with Bamberg Symphony, the Bavarian State Prize for Music.
2023
Please note: Biographies are based on information provided to the CSOA by the artists or their representatives. More current information may be available on websites of the artists or their management.
