Biography

Born in the Czech Republic, Jakub Hrůša is Chief Conductor of the Bamberg Symphony, Principal Guest Conductor of the Philharmonia Orchestra, and Principal Guest Conductor of the Czech Philharmonic. He is a frequent guest with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Berlin Radio Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Cleveland Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, and the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony. The 2018-19 season sees his debuts with the Berlin Philharmonic, Bavarian Radio Symphony, Orchestre de Paris, and NHK Symphony. He made his San Francisco Symphony debut in 2017.

As a conductor of opera, he has 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, and serving as music director of Glyndebourne on Tour for three years. He has also led productions for the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden (Carmen), Vienna State Opera (a new production of The Makropulos Case), Opéra National de Paris (Rusalka and The Merry Widow), and Frankfurt Opera (Il trittico), among others.

Mr. Hrůša’s most recent recordings include Smetana’s Má Vlast with the Bamberg Symphony for the Tudor label and concertos for orchestra by Bartók and Kodály with the Berlin Radio Orchestra on Pentatone. He has also recorded Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique, R. Strauss’s An Alpine Symphony and Suk’s Asrael Symphony with the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra (Octavia Records); the Tchaikovsky and Bruch violin concertos with Nicola Benedetti and the Czech Philharmonic (Universal); and nine discs (for the Pentatone and Supraphon labels) of Czech repertory with PKF-Prague Philharmonia, of which he was music director from 2009 until 2015.

Mr. Hrůša studied conducting at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague under the tutelage of Jiří Bělohlávek. He is currently President of the International Martinů Circle and The Dvořák Society, and in 2015 he was the inaugural recipient of the Sir Charles Mackerras Prize.