Jakub Hrůša will become the fifth Chief Conductor and the musical director of the prominent German orchestra the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra Players – the Bavarian State Philharmonic Orchestra (Bamberger Symphoniker – Bayerische Staatsphilharmonie) in the 2016/2017 season. It was announced today during the morning ceremony, which was attended by Jakub Hrůša himself, by Bavaria’ Minister of Culture Dr. Ludwig Spaenle together with Marcus Rudolf Axt, Chief Executive.
Before Jakub Hrůša, who is a native of the city of Brno, the orchestra was conducted by many prominent figures, namely Joseph Keilberth, Eugen Jochum and Herbert Blomstedt. Jakub Hrůša will replace British musician Jonathan Nott, who held the post of the Chief Conductor of the Bamberger Symphoniker for 16 years. Hrůša was chosen in a strong international competition and concluded a five-year contract which can be prolonged with the orchestra. Jonathan Nott has conducted the orchestra since 2000; during this time the orchestra turned into a modern ensemble with its original sound. Owing to dynamic dramaturgy introducing contemporary classical music and thanks to its strong basis of subscribers the Bamberger Symphoniker has become an honoured and respected ensemble both at home and also all over the world.
“I am absolutely delighted to become the Chief Conductor of the Bamberg orchestra,” Jakub Hrůša said in reaction to the news. “Even before I had this opportunity to conduct this excellent orchestra I had been a huge admirer. The Bamberger Symphoniker represents orchestral culture in every sense of the word. Moreover, the roots of the orchestra are in Prague. We breathe the same musical air, share the cultural background and we are very close from the point of view of arts and history.”
Although Jakub Hrůša has worked all over the world, he keeps cooperating with ensembles in his own country, such as the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, the Janáček Philharmonic Orchestra Ostrava or the Brno Philharmonic Orchestra. In the last season, he performed two successful concerts in Brno with the last orchestra mentioned – New Year’s concert with piano player Ivo Kahánek and an open air concert as part of the Spilberg festival last year. Pieces by Maurice Ravel, Leonard Bernstein or Sergei Rachmaninoff were performed and titled the Symphonic dances.
The Bamberger Symphoniker history is closely related with the Czech lands; the orchestra even considers its Bohemian sound its “trademark”; this fact is closely related to German musicians who were forced to leave Czechoslovakia after WWII – they were the ones who witnessed the beginnings of the Bamberger Symphoniker. They were from various theatre orchestras from Prague, Carlsbad and Silesia. The orchestra was first based in a Gothic Style building of a former Dominican monastery; some of the most important recordings were made in the cloister there with legendary conductors such as Eugen Jochum, Horst Stein or Joseph Keilberth. The concert tour activities of the Bamberger Symphoniker are amazing. Within their seventy years of existence they have performed over 6,500 concerts and have visited 500 towns and cities in 60 countries worldwide. Since 1993 they have been located in the Concert and Congress Centre and the orchestra seat has been on an island encircled by the Regnitz River.
Jakub Hrůša has been a regular guest conductor of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra and the principal guest conductor of the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphonic Orchestra. His recent debuts with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Vienna Symphony have been a great success and his performances with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Orchestra Filarmonica della Scala and performances of Janáček’s and Puccini’s operas at the Vienna State Opera and the Frankfurt Opera are eagerly-awaited. The first concerts of Jakub Hrůša together with the Bamberger Symphoniker in the current season will take place between the 12th and 15th November 2015 in Bayreuth, Schweinfurt and Bamberg. Works by Josef Suk, Dmitri Shostakovich, Hector Berlioz and Erkki-Sven Tüür will be included in the programme.
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