Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, Anna Lucia Richter & Jakub Hrůša
Biography Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, Anna Lucia Richter & Jakub Hrůša
The Bamberg Symphony
is an extraordinary orchestra in an extraordinary city. Bamberg without the Symphony would be a city missing something essential, something basic, like the air we breathe. Almost 10% of Bamberg's citizens subscribe to one of the five concert series. There are also quite a few special concerts, almost all of which sold out, so that everybody in the city attends a concert with the orchestra on average once a year.
Yet the Bamberg Symphony is much more than simply the musical hub of the city and the entire region. It’s one of Germany’s most-travelled orchestras: since 1946, it has been delighting audiences worldwide with its characteristically dark, rounded, radiant sound. In that time it has given well over 7,000 concerts in more than 500 cities and 63 countries, and as the Bavarian State Philharmonic it regularly criss-crosses the globe as cultural ambassador to the world for Bavaria and all of Germany.
The orchestra has received many prizes and awards, among others for its countless record and CD productions. In 2018 Bamberg Symphony was awarded with the German Music Publishers’ Association’s award for »Best Concert Series«.
The circumstances of its birth make the Bamberg Symphony a mirror of German history. In 1946, ex-members of Prague’s German Philharmonic Orchestra met fellow musicians who had likewise been forced to flee their homes by the war and its aftermath. Together they founded the »Bamberg Musicians’ Orchestra«, soon after renamed the Bamberg Symphony. Its lineage can be traced back through the Prague Orchestra to the 19th and 18th centuries, so that the Bamberg Symphony’s roots reach back to Mahler and Mozart.
Now, more than seventy years after it was founded, and with Czech-born Jakub Hrůša, the Orchestra’s fifth Chief Conductor, at the helm since September 2016, once again there is a living link from the Bamberg Symphony’s historic roots to its present.
Jakub Hrůša
In September 2016, Jakub Hrůša assumed musical direction of the Bamberg Symphony. »I am very happy that in Jakub Hrůša we have been able to secure a musical director for the Bavarian State Philharmonic in Bamberg who is young and also enjoys a high profile«, says Bavaria's Minister for the Arts, Dr. Ludwig Spaenle. »The position of Chief Conductor of the Bamberg Symphony is extremely demanding; more than any other musician, he is responsible for the artistic standards of this exceptional orchestra. In view of the Bamberg Symphony’s history, which saw its members move from Prague to Bamberg after the war, the new Chief Conductor bridges once more, 70 years after the foundation of the Orchestra, its past and its present.«
»I am truly delighted to be Chief Conductor of the Bamberg Symphony«, says Jakub Hrůša. »Even before I had a chance to conduct this jewel among European orchestras, I had been a huge admirer. They are an embodiment of orchestral culture, with everything imagined by this term. And with the Orchestra having its origins in Prague, we breathe the same musical air, sharing our cultural backgrounds, being artistically and historically very close. With the Bamberg Symphony, every phrase can turn to be a little miracle, and every concert is a transfiguration.«
Jakub Hrůša is the fifth Chief Conductor in the history of the Bamberg Symphony. Born in Brno in 1981, he studied conducting at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. Principal Guest Conductor of the Philharmonia Orchestra, Permanent Guest Conductor of the Czech Philharmonic, Principal Guest Conductor of Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, and served as Music Director and Chief Conductor of PKF-Prague Philharmonia from 2009-2015.
He is a regular guest with many of the world's greatest orchestras. Recent highlights have included débuts with the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Filarmonica della Scala, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony and Chicago Symphony; Bohemian Legends and The Mighty Five – two major series specially devised for the Philharmonia Orchestra; and returns to the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, The Cleveland Orchestra, Vienna Symphony, DSO Berlin and Los Angeles Philharmonic. The 17/18 season will see his débuts with the San Francisco Symphony and Munich Philharmonic Orchestra.
As a conductor of opera, he has been a regular guest with Glyndebourne Festival and has served as Music Director of Glyndebourne On Tour for three years. Elsewhere he has led productions for Vienna State Opera, Opéra National de Paris, Frankfurt Opera, Finnish National Opera, Royal Danish Opera and Prague National Theatre. The 17/18 season will see his return to the Opera National de Paris and his début at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden.
Jakub Hrůša is currently President of the International Martinů Circle. In 2015 he was the inaugural recipient of the Sir Charles Mackerras Prize. He lives with his wife and his two children in Prague.
