Guest Conductors
Marcello Rota - Principal Guest Conductor
After studies in Alessandria with Giacomo Zoppi who was his French horn teacher and with Felice Quaranta who was the teacher of composition, Marcello later continued conducting studies with Igor Markevitch and Franco Ferrara at the Chigiana Academy of Siena.
Conducting all of the greatest Italian orchestras he has been a frequent guest on the world’s most prestigious stages including Concertgebouw, La Scala, Musikhalle Hamburg, Filharmoniehalle (Munich, Berlin, Mannheim), Royal Albert Hall, Festival Opera Hall (Wexford), or Palais des Beaux Arts (Brussels). He has conducted many foreign orchestras in various main concert halls throughout Europe, USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Russia, or China. He has collaborated with such remarkable artists as Rostropovic, Geringas, Bocelli, or Rampal.
Marcello Rota´s opera repertoire includes more than thirty titles with particular attention to Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti, Verdi and Puccini. Marcello Rota has been a principal guest conductor of the Czech National Symphony Orchestra since 2004.
He has recently appeared with this orchestra on the recordings for the JVC Victor Entertainment, on Prague Proms Festival, and accompanying Andrea Bocelli on the concerts in over forty cultural centers throughout the world.
Petr Altrichter
Petr Altrichter is one of the Czech Republic’s most distinguished conductors, who made an impressive name through his dynamic and insightful interpretations of Czech, Russian and German symphonic repertoire. Altrichter became internationally recognized in 1976 when he took second place and won the special award at the International Conducting Competition in Besançon, France. He graduated from the Conservatory of Music in Ostrava in French horn and conducting and continued his studies at the Janacek Academy of Music and Performing Arts.
At the beginning of his career he became an assistant of Vaclav Neumann in the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra. Altrichter quickly promoted from Principal Guest Conductor to Chief Conductor of the Prague Symphony Orchestra between 1990 and 1992. He also regulary works with the Czech Philharmonic, the Czech National Symphony and the Czech Radio Symphony Orchestras. Moreover, he was appointed the Principal Conductor of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra after his first work with the orchestra in 1994, which received fantastic reviews.This post he held from 1997 until 2001. With this orchestra he appeared at the 2000 BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall and made several highly appreciated recordings for the orchestra’s own label, RLPO live.
In the U.K. Petr Altrichter has also worked with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Throughout the World he has conducted a number of world’s leading orchestras. Petr Altrichter was the Music Director of the Südwestdeutsche Philharmonie in Konstanz, Germany from 1993 until 2004.
In February 2010 Petr Altrichter conducted some of the CNSO concerts at the Czech Festival in London, and on a subsequent tour.
Kryštof Marek
Conductor, composer, arranger, and jazz pianist. Various music genres have been associated with Kryštof Marek's individuality. As a conductor he was engaged in Pilsen Music Theatre between 1999 and 2003, having conducted many performances of 10 diverse operettas and musical theater works (among them also his own jazz operetta Kristian II.). In Prague, Kryštof has conducted successful musical theatres Miss Saigon and Les Misérables. Grown up with and influenced by Milan Svoboda's Kontraband, he has recorded 5 CDs with them. Later he was a forming member of Josef Vejvoda's Jazz Trio, and a member of Agon Ensemble focused on the contemporary classical music. The concerts of this ensemble included appearances in the USA, or Canada. One of the highlights of his career was a performance with Karel Gott in Carnegie Hall. Besides other successful appearances Kryštof has also performed with the Black Theatre in the United Arab Emirates. Presently, Kryštof's home stage is Karlin Music Theatre where he conducts the musicals (The Producers, Carmen, The Gypsy Princess, Lemonade Joe, or The Polish Blood). In July 2010 he was conducting the premiere of Hello Dolly produced by the Studio Two.
Kryštof Marek has been a regular guest conductor of the CNSO at Prague Proms and other concerts since 2005. These appearances has included The Hollywood Night, Caribbean Night, a concert with Silje Neergard, or Jazz Meets the Symphony featuring Lalo Schifrin and James Morrison accompanied by the CNSO). Other highlights of his conducting carrier include concert to celebrate 50th anniversary of the Semafor Theatre, "Podepsáno srdcem" ("Signed by Heart" - a charity concert broadcast by the Czech TV), or presenting the Hollywood Night program with the CNSO in Liberec, Czech Republic. Kryštof is also a leader and arranger of the St. Blaises Big Band. Their appearances include the concerts at Montreux Jazz Festival, or in London's Cadogan Hall. The Out of Frame Publishing introduced his own compositions in program featuring Tony Lakatos in 2006. In 2009 the same publisher released the record of Kryštof's piano recital from St. Vavřinec's Church in Prague. As conductor, composer, and arranger Kryštof Marek has contributed to the two CDs and one DVD of the St. Blaises Big Band.
Jan Chalupecký
Jan Chalupecký is Prague´s State Conservatory graduate (violoncello). He started his career as an orchestra member, and soon he became conductor of Prague Chamber Opera in 1990 - 1993. In 1993/1994 season he began to appear in the National Theatre in Prague, as the assistant to the fenomenous Czech conductor Zdeněk Košler, with whom he got up Dvořák´s Jakobín opera. Since 1994 he has conducted 15 titles in the National Theatre, and he carried out Verdi´s Requiem scenic music. For the National Theatre he also introduced the world premiere of M. Smolka´s Nagano opera in April 2004. Together with the National Theatre ensemble he presented himself in Japan, Hong Kong, Slovakia, and Hungary. He conducted three concerts at the prestigous Prague Spring festival.
Jan Chalupecký is currently cooperating also with other ensembles, including Mozart Opera, Theatre Ústí nad Labem, and State Opera Prague. In the years 2000 - 2003 he got up three operas for the "Loketské kulturní léto" festival. These operas were Rusalka, Nabucco, and Carmen. Next, he´s going to add Verdi´s Rigoletto this year. He was appointed Chief Conductor of Pilsen Philharmony in 1997, where he remained untill 1999. He co-operated with Deutches Kammer Orchester, Czech Chamber Soloists, Prague FOK Symphony Orchestra, Moravian Philharmony Olomouc, State Philharmony Brno, and Prague Chamber Philharmony. Together with CNSO Jan Chalupecký has recorded a huge amount of film music, and he also conducted the orchestra at the tours abroad ( Switzerland, Germany). In December 2004, he conducted CNSO at the "Signated by Heart" benefit concert in the Spanish Hall of Prague Castle.
Tomáš Brauner
After graduating from Prague Conservatory of Music where he studied oboe and conducting, he began extensive studies of conducting at The Prague Academy of Arts with Prof. Radomil Eliška, František Vajnar, Josef Kuchinka and Petr Vronský. He graduated in 2005 and continued in a residency program of University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna with Prof. Uros Lajovic. In 2004 Tomáš was a participant in Conducting Seminar with Maestro Kurt Masur in Wroclau.
In 2010 Tomáš Brauner became a laureate of The Dimitris Mitropoulos Conductors Competition in Athens. In the same year he accepted the position of Main Guest Conductor of The Pilsen Philharmonic Orchestra. He has held the same post with the Czech National Symphony Orchestra since 2006.
Tomáš Brauner regularly collaborates with The Czech Radio Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra of Colours Athens, Bohuslav Martinu Philharmonic Orchestra Zlín, Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra Olomouc, The North Czech Philharmonic Teplice, Prague Chamber Orchestra, The Chamber Orchestra of National Theatre Prague, Chamber Orchestra Pardubice, or Czech Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra.
In September 2007 he conducted The Moscow State Radio Orchestra in The Svetlanov Hall Moscow accompanying leading soloists of the St. Petersburg Mariinsky Theatre and The Bolshoi Theatre Moscow. In April 2008 he participated in the preparations of the performance of Janáček's opera Jenůfa at The Palacio del Bella Artes in Mexico City.
As opera conductor Tomáš Brauner has appeared at The J.K. Tyl Theatre Pilsen and his credits include Verdi's Rigolleto, Tchaikovsky's Maid of Orleans, Dvořák's Jacobin, Puccini's Turandot or Adriana Lecouvreur by Francesco Cilea. In 2008-2009 season of The Pilsen Theatre he conducted Tchaikovsky's ballet The Sleeping Beauty, or M. Jarre's Notre-Dame de Paris. Since 2008 he has worked in The State Opera Prague as assistant conductor on productions of Verdi's Othello and Massenet's Don Quichotte. In the same theatre he has also conducted Il barbiere di Siviglia by Gioachino Rossini, Puccini's La Bohème, Verdi's Nabucco, Mozart's Magic Flute, and in season 2010-2011 the ballet Giselle by Adolphe Charles Adam. Since 2009 Tomáš Brauner has been collaborating with The National Moravian-Silesian Theatre in Ostrava on productions of Don Giovanni by W.A.Mozart, and Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty. This theatre saw him conducting Verdi's Nabucco in the 2010-2011 season.
