Vladimír Válek

Vladimír Válek started his career as conductor of the Prague Symphony Orchestra (1975-1987). In 1985 he was offered the post of Chief Conductor of the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra and he continued to hold this position until 2011. He was also the conductor of the Czech Philharmonic for ten years from 1996. He was appointed Principal Guest Conductor of the Osaka Symphoniker orchestra from the 2002/03 season onwards, and during the years 2004-2007 he headed the Slovak Philharmonic as its Chief Conductor.

He has performed in many world cities with the above-mentioned orchestras (Amsterdam, Beijing, Berlin, Bonn, Brussels, Cairo, Copenhagen, London, Madrid, Moscow, New York, Paris, Salzburg, Shanghai, Singapore, Seoul, Tel Aviv, Tokyo, Vienna, Zurich). In addition to these posts, Vladimír Válek also appears as guest conductor with various symphony orchestras, for example, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, MDR Orchestra Leipzig, Tonkünstler and ORF, both in Vienna, the Japan Philharmonic Orchestra, the Yomiuri Symphony Orchestra and the National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra.

He has over one thousand recordings to his name, for radio stations in Prague, Vienna, Leipzig, Hilversum and Zagreb. He is often invited to perform at international festivals in Linz, Athens, Istanbul, Wroclaw, Montreux, Lucerne (here he also conducted a joint concert with Rafael Kubelík). He regularly appears as a guest conductor at the Prague Spring Festival, the Bratislava Musical Festival, etc.

Vladimír Válek’s discography comprises over one hundred titles for Pony Canyon, Harmonia Mundi, Supraphon and Radioservis. His recording of the Ervin Schulhoff piano concertos with soloist Jan Simon and the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra was awarded the international music reviewers’ prize at the MIDEM Classic in Cannes in 1996 (Cannes Classical Award). One of the most distinctive recording projects of recent times is the complete symphonies of Antonín Dvořák, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and Bohuslav Martinů, recorded by the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra and its Chief Conductor. The recordings were published by Supraphon.

In October 2010, Vladimír Válek was awarded the Medal of Merit by the Czech President Václav Klaus.