Outstanding violin art

Born in the Czech Republic, Jakub Hrůša is Chief Conductor of the Bamberg Symphony, Principal Guest Conductor of the Philharmonia Orchestra, and Principal Guest Conductor of the Czech Philharmonic.

He is a frequent guest with many of the world’s greatest orchestras, and in addition to his titled positions enjoys close relationships with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Orchestre philharmonique de Radio France, The Cleveland Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, and Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra. The 2018/19 season saw him make debuts with the Berlin Philharmonic, Bavarian Radio Symphony, Orchestre de Paris and NHK Symphony. Jakub Hrůša has been the regular guest conductor at the RSB since 2013.

His relationships with leading vocal and instrumental soloists have included collaborations in recent seasons with Behzod Abduraimov, Piotr Anderszewski, Leif Ove Andsnes, Lisa Batiashvili, Jonathan Biss, Yefim Bronfman, Rudolf Buchbinder, Isabelle Faust, Bernarda Fink, Julia Fischer, Vilde Frang, Sol Gabetta, Christian Gerhaher, Kirill Gerstein, Karen Gomyo, Augustin Hadelich, Hilary Hahn, Alina Ibragimova, Janine Jansen, Karita Mattila, Leonidas Kavakos, Sergey Khachatryan, Lang Lang, Igor Levit, Jan Lisiecki, Albrecht Mayer, Johannes Moser, Viktoria Mullova, Anne Sofie Mutter, Kristine Opolais, Stephanie d’Oustrac. Olga Peretyatko, Jean-Guihen Queyras, Josef Špaček, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Daniil Trifonov, Simon Trpčeski, Mitsuko Uchida, Klaus Florian Vogt, Yuja Wang, Frank Peter Zimmermann and Nikolaj Znaider.

As a conductor of opera, he has been a regular guest with Glyndebourne Festival, conducting “Vanessa”, The “Cunning Little Vixen”, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, “Carmen”, “The Turn of the Screw”, “Don Giovanni” and “La bohème”, and serving as Music Director of Glyndebourne On Tour for three years. Elsewhere he has led productions for the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden (“Carmen”), Vienna State Opera (a new production of “The Makropulos Case”), Opéra National de Paris (“Rusalka” and “The Merry Widow”), and Frankfurt Opera (“Il trittico”), among others.

As a recording artist, his most recent releases are Smetana’s “Má vlast” with Bamberg Symphony (Tudor), and “Concertos for Orchestra” by Bartók and Kodály with RSB Berlin (Pentatone). He has also recorded Berlioz’s “Symphonie fantastique”, Strauss’s “Eine Alpensinfonie” and Suk’s “Asrael” Symphony with Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra (Octavia Records); the Tchaikovsky and Bruch violin concertos with Nicola Benedetti and the Czech Philharmonic (Universal); and nine discs (with Pentatone and Supraphon) of Czech repertoire with PKF-Prague Philharmonia, where he was Music Director from 2009 until 2015.

Jakub Hrůša studied conducting at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, where his teachers included Jiří Bělohlávek. He is currently President of the International Martinů Circle and The Dvořák Society, and in 2015 he was the inaugural recipient of the Sir Charles Mackerras Prize.

Frank Peter Zimmermann is widely regarded as one of the foremost violinists of his generation. Praised for
his selfless musicality, his brilliance and keen intelligence he has been performing with all major orchestras
in the world for well over three decades, collaborating on these occasions with the world’s most renowned
conductors. His many concert engagements take him to all important concert venues and international
music festivals in Europe, the United States, Asia, South America and Australia.

Highlights during the 2021/22 season include a residency with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande and
Jonathan Nott, as well as engagements with the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks and Klaus
Mäkelä, the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester and Manfred Honeck, the Bamberger Symphoniker and Jakub
Hrůša and the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig and Staatskapelle Berlin, both with Daniele Gatti.

With pianist Martin Helmchen he is performing the complete or partial Beethoven sonata cycle in various
major cities in Europe. BIS Records has meanwhile released the complete cycle on 3 CDs.

In 2010 he formed the Trio Zimmermann with viola player Antoine Tamestit and cellist Christian Poltéra; the
trio has been performing in all major music centres and festivals in Europe. BIS Records released awardwinning
CD recordings of works for string trio by J.S. Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Schubert, Schoenberg and
Hindemith.

Over the years Frank Peter Zimmermann has built up an impressive discography for EMI Classics, Sony
Classical, BIS Records, hänssler CLASSIC, Ondine, Decca, Teldec Classics and ECM Records. He has
recorded virtually all major concerto repertoire, ranging from Bach to Ligeti, as well as recital repertoire.
Many of these highly acclaimed recordings have received prestigious awards and prizes worldwide. Most
recent releases include the two violin concertos of Martinů with the Bamberger Symphoniker and Jakub
Hrůša, coupled with the solo sonata of Bartók (BIS); the two violin concertos of Shostakovich with the NDR
Elbphilharmonie Orchester and Alan Gilbert (BIS; nominated for a Grammy Award); and the violin
concertos of J.S. Bach with the Berliner Barock Solisten (hänssler CLASSIC). In September 2021 the Berliner
Philharmoniker released a special CD on its own label with Mr. Zimmermann’s performances of the Bartók,
Beethoven and Berg concertos under conductors Alan Gilbert, Daniel Harding and Kirill Petrenko resp.

He received a number of special prizes and honours, among which the “Premio del Accademia Musicale
Chigiana, Siena” (1990), the “Rheinischer Kulturpreis” (1994), the “Musikpreis” of the city of Duisburg
(2002), the “Bundesverdienstkreuz 1. Klasse der Bundesrepublik Deutschland” (2008) and the “Paul-
Hindemith-Preis der Stadt Hanau” (2010).
Mr. Zimmermann has given four world premieres: Magnus Lindberg’s violin concerto no. 2 with the London
Philharmonic Orchestra and Jaap van Zweden (2015) with further performances with the Berliner
Philharmoniker and Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, both under Daniel Harding and with the New
York Philharmonic and Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, both under Alan Gilbert. He also
premiered the violin concerto “en sourdine” by Matthias Pintscher with the Berliner Philharmoniker and
Peter Eötvös (2003), the violin concerto “The Lost Art of Letter Writing” by Brett Dean, who received the
2009 Grawemeyer Award for this composition, with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, conducted by the
composer (2007) and the violin concerto no. 3 “Juggler in Paradise” by Augusta Read Thomas with the
Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and Andrey Boreyko (2009).

Born in 1965 in Duisburg, Germany, Mr. Zimmermann started playing the violin when he was 5 years old,
giving his first concert with orchestra at the age of 10. He studied with Valery Gradov, Saschko Gawriloff and
Herman Krebbers.

Mr. Zimmermann plays on the 1711 Antonio Stradivari violin “Lady Inchiquin”, which is kindly provided by
the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf, “Kunst im Landesbesitz”.