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Petr VronskyCzech conductor.
Date of Birth: 04.03.1946
Country:  Czech |
Content:
Early Life and Education
Jiří Bělohlávek was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia, on February 24, 1946, into a musical family. His father was a violinist, and Jiří began playing the violin at an early age. He studied violin at the Plzeň Conservatory and then went on to study conducting at the Prague Academy of Music, where his teachers included Alois Klima, Bohumír Liška, and Indřich Rohan.
Debut and Orchestra Appointments
Bělohlávek made his conducting debut in 1971 with the Plzeň Opera. In 1978, he joined the Brno Philharmonic Orchestra as a conductor and became its chief conductor from 1983 to 1991. He subsequently served as chief conductor of the Janáček Philharmonic Orchestra in Ostrava from 2002 to 2004.
International Acclaim
Like many other Czech conductors, Bělohlávek's reputation on the international stage was primarily built on his performances of operas by Leoš Janáček and Bedřich Smetana. In particular, he collaborated with Zdeněk Mácal in 1999 to conduct a series of performances of Smetana's "The Bartered Bride" at the Opéra de Monte-Carlo.
