Jakub Hrůša

Born in 1981 in Brno, Czech Republic, Jakub Hrůša studied conducting at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, where Jiří Bělohlávek was one of his teachers. He began his career in 2005 with the PKF — Prague Philharmonia, serving as its Chief Conductor from 2008 to 2015. In the area of opera, he first attracted attention at Glyndebourne on Tour, where he was Music Director from 2010 to 2013. He was subsequently invited to appear at the Vienna Staatsoper, Zurich Opera, the Opéra national de Paris, Oper Frankfurt, Lyric Opera of Chicago, and the Royal Opera House in London, where he has served as Music Director since 2025, conducting in his first season Puccini’s Tosca, Janáček’s The Makropulos Affair, and Britten’s Peter Grimes. At the Salzburg Festival he led a production of Janáček’s Káťa Kabanová in 2022. Hrůša has been Chief Conductor of the Bamberg Symphony since 2016; he will conclude his tenure there in 2028 to assume the positions of Chief Conductor and Music Director of the Czech Philharmonic. He works regularly with the Berlin, Vienna, and Munich Philharmonic Orchestras; the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra; the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra; and the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, and he has appeared in the United States with the Cleveland Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. His recordings with the Bamberg Symphony include a Brahms-Dvořák cycle. He has received numerous awards, including no fewer than two BBC Music Magazine Awards in 2020 and the International Classical Music Award in 2022, 2023, and 2026; in early 2026, he was named Conductor of the Year by Musical America. Jakub Hrůša is President of the International Martinů Circle and the Dvořák Society; his honors include the inaugural Sir Charles Mackerras Prize (2015), the Dvořák Prize and the Bavarian State Prize for Music (2020), and the Medal of Merit of the Czech Republic (2025). He is also an Honorary Member of the Royal Academy of Music in London.

Lucerne Festival debut on 27 August 2019 with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra in a program of works by Mozart, Schumann, and Mendelssohn

April 2026