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The results of the three years Zdeněk Mácal has been artistically involved as Chief Conductor of the Czech Philharmonic have been gradual. His sparkling artistic inspiration and tenacity have made a major contribution to the excellent musical condition of the orchestra. It is therefore no accident that offers of engagements are pouring in, but Zdeněk Mácal is obviously turning these down in order to devote himself exclusively to his orchestra. During 2004 alone, the Chief Conductor received four different awards, the most prestigious being on the occasion of the Czech Republic’s National Day on October 28th, when he was awarded the Medal for Services to the Nation in the Field of Art by the President of the Republic in Prague Castle’s Vladislav Hall. Zdeněk Mácal will be on home ground when he launches the Czech Philharmonic’s 111th season on August 23rd 2006, with a performance of Mahler’s 5th symphony and Antonín Dvořák´s Violin Concerto with the star violinist, Hilary Hahn.

“I have now come full circle, I left from here and here I have returned,” was how Zdeněk Mácal referred to his appointment as principal conductor to the Czech Philharmonic at the beginning of the 2003-2004 season. The world-renowned and charismatic musician, famed for his masterful interpretations and gracious conducting style, returned to Prague and the Czech Republic after many years spent abroad, in order to take up a prestigious artistic position in the country of his birth and from which he embarked on his brilliant international career. Zdeněk Mácal (born 1936) - currently permanently residing in Switzerland - studied at the Musical Academy and the Janáček Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts in his native Brno.

The first time he found himself in the spotlight was when he won two important musical competitions: the international conducting competition in Besançon in 1965 and the Dmitri Mitropoulos Competition in New York in 1966, when Leonard Bernstein was chairman of the panel of judges. At the beginning of his career he worked closely with Czech orchestras, including the Czech Philharmonic, with whom he toured to Rumania, Bulgaria and Turkey (1966) and Germany and Switzerland (1968). After the Soviet occupation of the then Czechoslovakia, Zdeněk Mácal emigrated and immediately became intensively involved in international musical life. He became, in turn, musical director of the Cologne Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Hannover Radio Orchestra, Chief Conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Musical Director of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and Chief Conductor of Chicago's Grant Park Summer Festival. In subsequent years he was responsible for the phenomenal rise of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra which he led from 1993 to 2002. In May 1998 he was honoured with an honorary doctorate from Westminster Choir College.

Whenever Mácal has found himself in a leading musical position, he has readily and with great personal commitment promoted his ideas on the status and role of an orchestra that shows a deep respect for its audiences and affords the public true and lasting musical enjoyment. During his career he has been regularly invited to perform with other leading American orchestras: whether he appeared as guest conductor of the New York Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Washington National Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic or the Boston Symphony Orchestra, he has always presented himself as an incredibly dynamic conductor with a clear musical conception and exceptional emotional depth. He has performed in Europe with similar application, conducting some of the most famous orchestras, such as the Berlin Philharmonic, all the London-based orchestras, Orchestre de Paris, Orchestre National de France, the Wiener Symphoniker and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. Guest appearances also took Zdeněk Mácal to Japan, the La Scala Orchestra in Milan and other principal opera houses.

All together, his career as a conductor has entailed working with over 160 orchestras on four continents. Mácal’s musical profile would not be complete without a mention of his participation in top international festivals (Vienna, Lucerne, Montreux, Edinburgh, Prague, Athens, Besançon and, in the USA, Ravinia, Tanglewood, Wolf Trap and the Hollywood Bowl) and his innumerable recordings which, during his career as conductor, he made primarily for Delos and Koss, but also for Sony, EMI, Decca, Deutsche Grammophon and Supraphon.

His return to his country of origin to work with Czech orchestras held a hint of sensation: he first returned to conduct the Czech Philharmonic once again during the 1996 and 1997 Prague Spring International Music Festivals and subsequently renewed his collaboration with the Prague Symphony Orchestra where, in 2001, he accepted the post of Chief Conductor. His fateful love of the Czech Philharmonic – as he himself describes his relationship with the orchestra – has, however, finally been fulfilled: Zdeněk Mácal’s arrival at the Rudolfinum in Prague, the home of the Czech Philharmonic, as Chief Conductor for the 2003-2004 season, heralds a new chapter in the history of the Czech Philharmonic and his own musical career. This will last until at least 2008.