Around the Music Festival

The Royal Opera House in the UK has announced that Czech conductor Jakub Hrůša will be its next music director. He will become Acting Music Director this season and begin his term as the seventh Music Director in the 2025/2026 season.

Hrůša succeeds Antonio Pappano, who has held the post since 2002 and will retire at the end of the 2023/2024 season. Hrůša was born in Brno, Czech Republic, in 1981 and is 41 years old. He studied conducting at the Prague Conservatory with Jiří Bělohlávek and Radomil Eliška.

In 2008 succeeded Bělohlávek as Music Director and Chief Conductor of the Prague Philharmonia, and in 2010 became the youngest conductor of the opening concert of the Prague Spring festival.

He was then appointed Principal Conductor of the Bamberger Symphoniker in Germany in 2016. His contract has been extended and his term of office runs until 2026.

In addition, he also serves as principal guest conductor of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra and the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Italy. In Japan, he also served as Principal Guest Conductor of the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra from 2010 to 2017.

At the Royal Opera House he has previously conducted Bizet’s “Carmen” and Wagner’s “Lohengrin”, and will conduct works by Puccini, Prokofiev, Britten and Janacek.

In the 2027/2028 season, he will also conduct a new production of Wagner’s “The Ring of the Nibelung”, directed by Barrie Kosky.

Meanwhile, Pappano, who is retiring, will have been in the position for 22 years, the longest tenure of any conductor in history.
He will succeed Simon Rattle as Chief Conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra in the 2024/2025 season.

During the 2024/2025 season, the position of Music Director will be vacant and will be shared by Frascha and Pappano as Special Guest Conductors.

Photo：Dvořákova Praha　/　Česká filharmonie


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