Biography
He studied violin at the Pavel J. Vejvanovský Conservatory in Kroměříž and conducting at Prague’s Academy of Performing Arts under the tutelage of Jiří Bělohlávek, Radomil Eliška and František Vajnar. Subsequently, he studied operatic conducting with Josef Kuchinka and Pavel Pokorný and chorus mastering with Jiří Chvála and Lubomír Mátl. He continued his studies at the Royal Academy in Stockholm under the tutelage of Jorma Panula. In 2002 he won the first edition of the Sir Georg Solti Conducting Competition in Frankfurt. As an opera conductor, he introduced himself at Vienna’s Volksoper with Flotow’s Marta and at Seville’s Teatro de la Maestranza with Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen. In the 2004/05 season he performed at Genoa’s Teatro Carlo Felice the production of Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte. At Turin’s Teatro Regio he conducted Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail and at Venice’s Teatro La Fenice another Mozart opera, Lucio Silla, with which he also appeared as a guest at the 2006 Salzburger Festspiele. In the 2007/08 season he made his debut at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich, where he conducted Ferruccio Busoni’s opera Doctor Faust. In January 2010, he conducted Mozart´s Idomeneo in Teatro Regio in Torino and Smetana´s The Bartered Bride in Valencia in 2010. He has also conducted Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro, Dvořák’s Rusalka and Strauss’ Salome at the Semperoper Dresden. At the Grosses Festspielhaus in Salzburg in 2004, he conducted the Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra’s performance of Dvořák’s Stabat Mater. He has been a guest conductor with the Tonhalle Orchester Zürich, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Staatsorchester Stuttgart, the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Staatskapelle Dresden, the Staatskapelle Weimar, the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, the Orchestre National de Lille, the NHK Symphony Orchestra Tokyo, the Accademia Santa Cecilia Roma and other orchestras. He has collaborated with the Prague Philharmonia, the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, the Prague Symphony Orchestra and the Brno Philharmonic Orchestra. The National Theatre audience rapturously received him at the Gala Concerts to open the 125th, 126th and 127th season and Mozart’s birthday anniversary concerts in 2008, 2009 and 2011. He also introduced himself as an opera conductor at the National Theatre – in Mozart’s La finta giardiniera, then in Idomeneo, Die Entführung aus den Serail and Don Giovanni, Janáček´s Káťa Kabanová and Dvořák´s The Jacobin. He conducted a concert performance of Strauss’ Salome, Stravinsky’s The Nightingale and Martinů’s Ariadne. He was the Music Director of the National Theatre Orchestra in the 2009-2012.