Chief Conductor Petr Popelka’s 2025/26 season is underscored by the Vienna Symphony Orchestra’s 125th anniversary celebration with a gala concert in October followed by a European tour, which continues to Asia during the spring of 2026. In addition to performances at the Konzerthaus and Musikverein in Vienna, Popelka and the orchestra launch their second edition of the Primavera da Vienna Festival in Trieste following its success last season.
Further highlights of the season include Popelka’s debuts with the Berlin and Munich philharmonic orchestras and the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, as well as his return to the Cleveland Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. With the Czech Philharmonic, he embarks on a summer tour to the Grafenegg and George Enescu festivals.
An acclaimed opera conductor, Petr Popelka led a new production of Johann Strauss, Jr.’s Die Fledermaus with the Vienna Symphony at the Theater an der Wien in October. In addition, he conducts Puccini’s Tosca at the Berlin State Opera and returns to the Bavarian State Opera for Dvořák’s Rusalka during the 2026 Munich Opera Festival.
Previous debuts have taken him to the Staatskapelle Berlin, Staatskapelle Dresden, Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Danish National Symphony Orchestra, and the NHK Symphony Orchestra in Tokyo, among others. Last season, he was featured in such televised events as the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra’s Velvet Revolution concert and the 2024 Nobel Prize Concert with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra. He also made guest appearances at the Zurich Opera House (Mozart’s Don Giovanni), Bavarian State Opera (Janáček’s Káťa Kabanová), Deutsche Oper Berlin (Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde), Semperoper Dresden (Shostakovich’s The Nose), and Theater an der Wien (Weinberger’s Schwanda).
Petr Popelka began his conducting career during the 2019/20 season after serving as deputy principal double bass at the Staatskapelle Dresden from 2010 to 2019. Shortly thereafter, he was appointed chief conductor of the Norwegian Radio Orchestra in Oslo from 2020 to 2023 and now is also chief conductor of the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra since the 2022/23 season. He received his musical training in his hometown of Prague and in Freiburg, Germany
December 2025
Please note: Biographies are based on information provided to the CSO by the artists or their representatives. More current information may be available on websites of the artists or their management.
