Jakub Hrůša

Jakub Hrůša

Born in the Czech Republic in 1981 and named by Gramophone magazine in 2011 as one of ten young conductors “on the verge of greatness”, Jakub Hrůša is Music Director and Chief Conductor of the Prague Philharmonia, Music Director of Glyndebourne on Tour, and Principal Guest Conductor of Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra.
In recent seasons Jakub Hrůša has appeared with many of Europe's leading orchestras, including the Philharmonia Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, SWR Symphony Stuttgart, WDR Symphony Cologne, NDR Symphony Hamburg, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic and Royal Flemish Philharmonic. In 2010, with the Prague Philharmonia, he become the youngest conductor since 1949 to lead the opening concert of the Prague Spring Festival.
He made his US debut in 2009 and has since appeared with Washington National Symphony, Atlanta Symphony and Seattle Symphony among others. He is also a regular visitor to Asia and returns in December 2011 to conduct two programmes as Princicipal Guest Conductor of Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra. In 2009 he made his Australian debut conducting the West Australian Symphony Orchestra, followed this with his Melbourne Symphony debut in 2011.
Highlights in 2011/12 include returns to the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Czech Philharmonic and Finnish Radio Symphony; debuts with Dallas Symphony, Houston Symphony, National Artsl Center Orchestra Ottawa, Netherlands Philharmonic, Barcelona Symphony, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Royal Liverpoool Philharmonic and Orchestre National de Lyon; a major tour of Japan with the Prague Philharmonia; and a return to the Prague Spring Festival to lead a concert performance of Beethoven's Fidelio, also with the Prague Philharmonia.
In the field of opera, Jakub Hrůša made his Glyndebourne Festival and Tour debuts in 2008 conducting Carmen, and followed this with Don Giovanni (Festival and Tour 2010) and the Turn of the Screw (Festival 2011). For Glyndebourne's autumn 2011 he prepared La Boheme. He has also led productions for Royal Danish Opera (Boris Godunov), Prague National Theatre (Rusalka) and Opera Hong Kong (Werther).
As a recording artist, Jakub Hrůša so far released six discs for Supraphon, five with the Prague Philharmonia including a critically-acclaimed live recording of Smetana's Má Vlast taken from the opening of the Prague Spring Festival in 2010. Also that year he made a recording of the Tchaikovsky and Bruch violin concertos with Nicola Benedetti and the Czech Philharmonic for Universal.
Jakub Hrůša studied conducting at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague where his teachers included Jiří Bělohávek. Since his graduation in 2004, he has built a strong reputation in his home country, and has conducted all the major Czech orchestras. Previously he served as Principal Conductor of the Prague Philharmonia, Music Director of the Bohuslav Martinů Philharmonic, Associate Conductor of the Czech Philharmonic, and Young Associate Conductor with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France. He is currently President of the International Martinů Circle.