Tomáš Netopil

Tomáš Netopil studied violin at the P. J. Vejvanovský Conservatory in Kroměříž and conducting at Prague’s AMU under Jiří Bělohlávek, Radomil Eliška and FrantišekVajnar. Later studied opera conducting under Jiří Chvála and choir leading under Josef Mátl. He broadened his education at the Royal Academy in Stockholm led by Jorma Panula. In 2002 he won the first annual Sir Georg Solti International Conductors’ Competition in Germany’s Frankfurt.

In 2003 he took the top prize at the Aspen Music Festival and School in the USA. He was invited to guest at the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra and in 2005 became assistant to David Zinman at the Aspen Music Festival and School. Appeared as an opera conductor at the Vienna Volksoper with Flotow’s Martha and at the Teatro de la Maestranza in Seville with Janáček’s Cunning Little Vixen.

In the 2004/2005 season, Tomáš Netopil conducted a production of Mozart’s opera Cosi fan tutte at Genoa’s Teatro Carlo Felice. He wielded the baton in Mozart’s Abduction from the Seraglio at the Teatro Regio in Turin and another of Mozart’s operas, Lucio Silla, at Venice’s Teatro La Fenice, with which he also appeared at a guest at the Salzburg Festival. Other productions of his included Beethoven’s opera Fidelio at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples and Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro in Genoa. Debuted the opera Doktor Faust by Ferruccio Busoni at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich. Conducted the Slovak Philharmonic in Dvořák’s cantata Stabat Mater at the Great Festival Hall in Salzburg in 2004. He has appeared at festivals including the Prague Spring and Smetana’s Litomyšl in the Czech Republic and performed with many of the country’s leading orchestras.

Netopil has been a guest conductor with the Tonhalle Orchester Zürich, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestra Filarmonica della Scala, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Staatskapelle Dresden, the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, the Orchestre National de Lille, the Orchestre National de Montpellier, the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, the NHK Symphony Orchestra Tokyo, the Accademia Santa Cecilia Roma, and others. Stood in for the late Sir Charles Mackerras at concerts by the Berlin Philharmonic in autumn 2010.

Audiences at Prague’s National Theatre warmly received his concerts on the anniversary of Mozart’s death in January 2008 and 2009. Performed for the first time as an opera conductor at the theatre’s Golden Chapel during the 2008/2009 season with Mozart’s La finta giardiniera.

Tomáš Netopil became the new principal director of the National Theatre Opera in the 2009/2010 season.