Jakub Hrůša is one of the most successful conductors of our time. He is currently the chief conductor of the Bamberger Symphoniker and the first guest conductor of the Czech Philharmonic and of the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia. He is also regularly invited to perform with some of the world’s most renowned orchestras, including the Vienna Philharmonic and the Cleveland Orchestra. In Hamburg he has long been an audience favourite. The first time he took charge of an orchestra he was only 15. That was a school orchestra in which he had previously played the piano and the trombone. »And I have never stopped«, he says.
5 Fragen
What makes a good conductor?
One has to be meticulously prepared and educated in all the relevant areas – musically and on culture more generally. And never stop learning. But the main thing is communication based on empathy – towards the musicians, towards the public.
And vice versa? What makes a good orchestra?
The great orchestras know how to combine the individual qualities of each player with the practically managed ideal of playing together in an ensemble – and they do that without losing the features of the particular style of the concrete place, of the group as such. The chamber-music virtues are the most important ones. And they have to present audiences with endless sources of musical energy – that is necessary at the moment of the performance itself. The great orchestras always serve the communities around them.
At the Elbphilharmonie the audience is sitting around the stage. How does it feel for you that part of the audience also sees you from the front?
As long as I feel interest from the public, it can be very inspiring. (It’s also my/our task to wake this interest up.) But this mutual inspiration rules the truly wonderful concerts independently of the disposition of the hall. The vineyard style (as in Hamburg) is great – but I love the more traditional shoe box halls as well. We have to make music great in any type of hall.
What kind of music do you listen to privately?
I usually listen to classical music, which has no limits: you would only discover a small percentage of it even if you listened to it 24/7 for your entire life. And/but I mostly listen to spoken word (audio books) and… silence.
Which composer of the past would you like to meet?
Every single one I conduct – and more. At the moment, that would be Janáček, Prokofiev and Shostakovich!
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About Jakub Hrůša
Born in Brno in the Czech Republic in 1981, Hrůša is now one of the most successful conductors of his generation. He is currently the chief conductor of the Bamberger Symphoniker and the first guest conductor of the Czech Philharmonic and of the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia. In autumn 2025, he will be assuming the post of musical director of the Royal Opera House in London. From 2017 to 2021, Hrůša was the first guest conductor of the renowned Philharmonia Orchestra, with which he gave concerts in London and on worldwide tours. One project through which he captured the world’s attention was a concert series focused on Czech and Russian works.
He is also a popular guest with many other famous orchestras, among them the Vienna, Berlin and Munich Philharmonic orchestras, the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig and the Cleveland Orchestra. As an opera conductor, Hrůša has performed at the Glyndebourne Festival, the Vienna State Opera, the Finnish National Opera, the Opéra National de Paris and the Prague National Theatre. Highlights of past years include critically acclaimed debuts at the Zurich Opera House with Leoš Janáček’s The Makropoulos Affair and at the Salzburg Festival with Janáček’s Káťa Kabanová.
His recording of Anton Bruckner’s Fourth Symphony with the Bamberger Symphoniker earned him an International Classical Music Award in 2022. He has also won the Annual Award of the German Record Critics (for Gustav Mahler’s Fourth Symphony) and a BBC Music Magazine Award (for Bohuslav Martinů’s Fourth Symphony). Hrůša studied at the Music Academy in Prague and is the president of the International Martinů Circle and the Dvořák Society. He has been the recipient of the Sir Charles Mackerras Prize and, in 2020, was awarded the Antonín Dvořák Prize of the Czech Academy of Classical Music and – together with the Bamberger Symphoniker – the Bavarian State Prize for Music.
