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Petr Popelka has taken an unusual path to the podium. Although he had an interest in composing and conducting since childhood, he left his native Prague when he was about 18 to study the double bass at the Freiburg University of Music in Germany.
During his time there, he made a point of poring over scores, especially those of contemporary German works, in the school’s library. “I was fascinated with all this music happening in Germany,” said Popelka, who will lead the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in concerts Dec. 4-7, featuring the world premiere of Matthew Aucoin’s Song of the Reappeared (with soprano Julia Bullock). “My dream was to study conducting and composition, but I had such good bass teachers that I got very soon a job in an orchestra.”
When he was 23, Popelka joined the Staatskapelle Dresden, serving as the highly regarded German orchestra’s associate principal bass since 2010. Its intense work schedule, which includes playing for operas and touring, left him no time to pursue conducting or composing. When he turned 30, realizing that he had never had the chance to do what he really wanted to do, he took a one-year sabbatical. He wrote music and took part in conducting masterclasses. “That’s how it started,” he said of this stage in his musical career.
In 2018, he participated in the Malko Competition, an important contest for budding conductors that is organized by the Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra. Although he did not win any prizes, he caught the attention of some of the orchestra’s members, who urged orchestra leaders to invite him back. His first appearance was a children’s concert, and that performance in turn led to engagements with other ensembles, including the Norwegian Radio Orchestra, where he became chief conductor in August 2020, serving until June 2023.
Feeling optimistic about his nascent conducting career, he resigned from the Staatskapelle Dresden in 2019. “I took this risk to go in the way that I always wanted to go,” he said. In 2022, he was named chief conductor and artistic director of the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, a post that brought him back to his homeland.
But bigger things yet were ahead for Popelka. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he substituted with the well-respected Vienna Symphony, taking the place of a conductor who was unable to travel to Austria. Later, he stepped in for Andrés Orozco-Estrada, who unexpectedly resigned as chief conductor in 2022 when his contract was not extended beyond 2024/25.
On that second visit, Popelka led the orchestra in Mahler’s Symphony No. 1 at Vienna’s famed Musikverein. “It was such a beautiful week, really — the atmosphere with the orchestra, the chemistry between us was so natural and so nice,” he said.
A year later, the orchestra chose him as Orozco-Estrada’s successor, an appointment that began in 2024/25.
Early in 2024, his career got another important if unexpected boost. The Chicago Symphony Orchestra announced that Popelka would substitute for Herbert Blomstedt, who had to withdraw from his scheduled appearance in March.
“It’s amazing,” Popelka said then of the surprise opportunity. “Not in my wildest dreams would I ever think about it. Stepping in with this orchestra, it’s something absolutely extraordinary.”
“It’s amazing,” he said of the surprise opportunity. “Not in my wildest dreams would I ever think about it. Stepping in with this orchestra, it’s something absolutely extraordinary.”
Those March 2024 concerts marked just his second engagement in the United States, after Popelka’s U.S. debut Jan. 12-14, 2024, with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. Until then, his career had been entirely focused on Europe.
Popelka’s surprise CSO engagement was the latest in a string of important guest-conducting debuts that season, including first-time performances with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic, Orchestre National de France and Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse. “My conducting career is not that long,” he said. “So most of what I’m doing is conducting with new orchestras.”
In addition to his symphonic engagements, Popelka also has regularly pursued opera, because he is a big of the form. “It’s something I really enjoyed playing in the orchestra,” he said. “It’s such a different thing than playing symphonic music. I love opera. I love the theater. Every evening is different. You have to react to a thousand different things.”
In 2023/24, he made his debut with the Zurich Opera and led the Vienna Symphony in a new production of Jaromír Weinberger’s Schwanda the Bagpiper (1926) at the MusikTheater an der Wien. Propelka was awarded the Austrian Music Theatre Prize for his musical direction of this opera.
From the bass section of the Staatskapelle to the podium of the CSO in five years — Popelka, now 39, has been engaged in an amazing journey. “I’m very thankful,” he said. “There is not a clear plan for conducting: If you do this, you will succeed. You never know. Every orchestra is different. What works with one orchestra doesn’t necessary work with the next orchestra. It’s just beautiful to experience.”
