Libor Pešek
Guest of the OperaBiography
Maestro Libor Pešek has enjoyed an international conducting career for over 50 years. During 1987–1997 he served as artistic advisor and principal conductor of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. He took this orchestra on their first tour of the USA which was greeted with great critical acclaim. Pešek and the RLPO have also toured Far East and many European countries (e.g. Spain, Austria, Germany). Libor Pešek has been regular visitor to the Proms in Royal Albert Hall and has been repeatedly invited to Edinburgh Festival. He has guest conducted for prominent American orchestras: Los Angeles, San Francisco, Minnesota, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Chicago and many others. He has also cooperated with a number of European orchestras including: the leading orchestras in Great Britain, Orchestre National de France, the Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra, La Scala, the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Dresden Staatskapelle to name a few. The artist has recorded extensively for Virgin Classics, BMG, EMI, Victor Entertainment and Supraphon. His complete Dvořák symphonies with the Czech Philharmonic and Royal Liverpool Philharmonic orchestras received the greatest acclaim.
Libor Pešek studied conducting at the Academy of Music in Prague under Karel Ančerl, Václav Smetáček and Václav Neumann. In 1958 he founded the Prague Chamber Harmony and with them established his conducting career in the former Czechoslovakia. Later he led several Czech orchestras as well as orchestras abroad, mainly in the Netherlands, and in 1981–1990 he served as conductor-in-residence of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra. In 2007, Maestro Pešek has been named Chief Conductor of the Czech National Symphony orchestra and he is a President of Prague Proms Festival. In March 1996, during her visit to Czech Republic, Queen Elizabeth II made Libor Pešek a Knight of the British Empire and in 1997 the President of the Czech Republic, Václav Havel presented him with a medal "For Service to the Country, 1st Degree".
Updated: June 2015