Around the Music Festival

t was revealed on August 8 that Czech conductor Mario Klemens had passed away. He died on January 11, 2025, at the age of 88. In 1966, he achieved the highest ranking—with no first-place winner awarded—at the Besançon International Conducting Competition in France; subsequently, he served as the chief conductor of the Film Symphony Orchestra for 12 years, from 1979 to 1991.

He was born in Chlumec nad Cidlinou in central Czechia. Raised in a family where his grandmother ran a music school, he studied piano, oboe, clarinet, and violin from an early age. In 1947, he enrolled in an eight-year school modeled after British grammar schools; his classmates included the future film director Miloš Forman and the future president Václav Havel.

He subsequently studied conducting under Václav Smetáček at the Prague Conservatory and further honed his skills at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. He began his career as a conductor at the J. K. Tyl Theatre in Plzeň while still a student.

Following a period that included time in Besançon, he served as a conductor for the Košice State Philharmonic Orchestra in Slovakia from 1972 to 1976; during this time, he also made guest appearances with various orchestras both in his home country and abroad, and in the late 1970s, he held a full-time teaching position at the Prague Conservatory.

In 1979, he was appointed conductor of the film symphony orchestra that had been established in 1943 as the resident orchestra of the Czech state-owned film production company, Barrandov Studios. He served as its artistic director until 1992, following the company’s privatization in 1991.

He participated in recording sessions for over 150 films, including *Blue Velvet* and *The Bourne Identity*. His work also includes conducting the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra for the recording of the symphonic suite *Princess Mononoke*.

PHOTO：Jan Sobotka