Jiří Rožeň’s international presence continues to grow rapidly in the 2022/23 season as he makes debuts with leading orchestras and continues to develop his reputation as one of the foremost interpreters of Czech repertoire.

 

In the 2022/23 season, Rožeň makes three important debuts with orchestras in North America joining Seattle Symphony, Utah Symphony, and Naples Philharmonic. Elsewhere, he will make his opera debut in Sweden for a new production of Smetana’s The Bartered Bride for the Göteborg Opera and will make symphonic debuts in Europe with Bochum Symphoniker and Orchestre National de Metz. He will return to the Slovak Sinfonietta and Czech Chamber Philharmonic and revives Flammen for the closing concert of Janáček Brno Festival.

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Recent seasons have included successful debuts with Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Stavanger Symphony Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Aalborg Symphony, Hallé, MDR Leipzig, Orquesta Sinfónica de las Islas Baleares and Slovak Philharmonic. In Belgium, he has conducted many of the major orchestras, including Orchestre national de Belgique, Brussels Philharmonic, Antwerp Symphony Orchestra as well as Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège.

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Rožeň is increasingly at home in the pit, and last season conducted several productions at the Prague State Opera including the successful new production of Schulhoff’s Flammen (the first in the Czech Republic for 90 years since its 1932 premier in Brno), his first Rusalka and a double bill of Weill’s Seven Deadly Sins with Schoenberg’s Erwartung. In summer 2022, he also conducted Nono’s Prometeo, for the Czech premiere of the work with the Ostrava Centre for New Music. During his time in Scotland, he conducted Stravinsky’s Mavra, Walton’s The Bear and Strauss’ Die Fledermaus. Elsewhere, he has conducted Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortilegès with Hamburger Symphoniker as well as Sven Daigger’s Eine Kluge Else at the Brücken-Festival für Neue Musik in Rostock.

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As a passionate and knowledgeable advocate of Czech music, Rožeň regularly programmes standard Czech repertoire, as well as music by lesser-known works by contemporary composers such as Bohuslav Martinů, Josef Suk, Viktor Kalabis and Miloslav Kabeláč. He has conducted one of Kabeláč’s signature works, his Symphony No.4 on various occasions, including the Austrian premiere with Camerata Salzburg at the Salzburg Festival and his conducting debut at Prague Spring Festival with PKF-Prague Philharmonia. 

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Soloist collaborations of future and past performances include renowned soloists such as Nobuyuki Tsuji, Randall Goosby, Alban Gerhardt, Lukáš Vondráček, Esther Yoo, Kian Soltani, Pavel Šporcl, Francesca Dego, Jan Mrácek, Kirill Gerstein, Vadim Gluzman and Lawrence Brownlee. 

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Born in Prague in 1991, Rožeň studied conducting at conservatoires and universities in Prague, Salzburg, Hamburg, Zürich and Glasgow where he was Leverhulme Conducting Fellow. He was successful in Salzburg and London as the Finalist of both the Nestlé and Salzburg Festival Young Conductors Award and the Donatella Flick LSO Conducting Competition. Formerly Assistant Conductor at the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Jiří worked alongside Donald Runnicles and Thomas Dausgaard and assisted them at the BBC Proms and the Edinburgh International Festival. His mentors have included Garry Walker, Dennis Russell Davies, Ulrich Windfuhr and Johannes Schlaefli. Other important influences include Bernard Haitink, David Zinman and Peter Eötvös in masterclasses with orchestras such as the Concertgebouworkest, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich.