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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 became 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 Principal Guest Conductor of Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra. In 2009 he made his Australian debut conducting the West Australian Symphony Orchestra, and 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

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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 became 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 Principal Guest Conductor of Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra. In 2009 he made his Australian debut conducting the West Australian Symphony Orchestra, and 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 Arts Center Orchestra Ottawa, Netherlands Philharmonic, Barcelona Symphony, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Royal Liverpool 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 tour he will conduct La bohème. 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 has 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 Bělohlávek. 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.

March 2012. Use of previously dated versions is not authorised. Please contact IMG Artists if you wish to edit this biography in any way.

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Reviews

"Jakub Hrůša is an outstanding young conductor, discriminating and focussed as well as possessing the ability to energise musicians."

Classical Source

"[La bohème], faithfully revived by Lee Blakeley, with an attractive young cast and the brilliant Czech conductor Jakub Hrusa leading the excellent GoT Orchestra…looks the probable hit of the tour…La bohème has rarely seemed so fresh. "

Sunday Times

"Prefacing the rarely played Janácek was a Czech chestnut, The Moldau , Bedrich Smetana’s portrayal of a river’s progress from burbling spring to broad surge. But Hrusa and the DSO made it sound like a brand-new piece, its phrases boldly rising and falling, its peasant dance just earthy enough, its storm quite stormy indeed"

Dallas Morning News

"But what I hadn't suspected was that the young Czech conductor Jakub Hrusa would offer such a thrillingly visceral, angry and churned-up reading of the score. Galvanising the LPO to playing of scalding brilliance, Hrusa carefully ratcheted up the tension in the early scenes and brought the drama to the boil with an almost daemonic intensity. This wasn't a nice creepy bedtime story, but something reaching dangerously into the darker reaches of human nature.This is truly great opera."

The Telegraph

"It is a musical delight and an absolute must-see. Under the inspired baton of Jakub Hrusa the members of the London Philharmonic Orchestra rose magnificently to the occasion. Orchestral sound was focused, alert, sensuous whenever scene-painting was required, jagged and brooding whenever the ghosts were making their presence felt. The screw turned, and with imperceptible adjustments to dynamic levels and tone production, the orchestra described what was happening. Shattering and exhilarating at the same time."

MusicalCriticism.com

"In the pit, Glyndebourne on Tour's Czech music director Jakub Hrusa secures an account notable for intricate detail and momentum. Altogether one of the festival's finest current productions"

The Stage

"[The London Philharmonic Orchestra] play like a pride of lions in Jakub Hrůša's exemplary interpretation. The Czech conductor enhances so many of the score's marvels with his detailed reading"

Classical Source

"If there's a comparison to be made with Mackerras, it's that Hrusa also gives this buoyant music light and air as well as forward momentum. And he really dug deep into a tender but complicated adagio, relishing the contrasts between its burbling woodwinds and darker undercurrents: there was profundity here, but no stodge. All that, and then a splendidly clangorous finale where I was almost smiling as much as the first violins: the chemistry is clearly positive.""

The Times

"Hrusa was impressive throughout the evening for his impeccable control, expressive interpretations, and colorful, detailed approach to the four works on the program....The Haydn symphony — a work full of musical jokes — got a precise, vivid reading, with Hrusa indicating a progressive diminuendo by drooping like a wilting flower. "

Seattle Times

"The trump card on this one, given at last year’s Prague Spring Festival, is its superlative but modest orchestral line-up, showing that you don’t need big symphonic forces for the music’s non-stop inspiration to make its mark: Hrůša's bombast-free conducting secures playing of poised grace besides vividness and panache: the colourful panolpy of Vltava (the River Moldau) unfolds with spellbinding loveliness."

Classic FM Magazine

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Discography