Czech Chamber Music Society • New Year’s Eve in the Rudolfinum

The French horn player and conductor Radek Baborák is one of the most prominent classical music figures internationally. Since making his solo debut in 1989, he has been collaborating with the world’s leading orchestras, important soloists and ensembles, and top conductors. After having played principal French horn in orchestras for many years (with the Berlin Philharmonic, Munich Philharmonic, and Czech Philharmonic) and having gained much experience in the field of chamber music and in the artistic leadership of ensembles (Baborák Ensemble — Orquestrina, Czech Horn Chorus, Afflatus Quintet), in 2008 he began devoting himself to a parallel career as a conductor in the tradition of instrumentalists who have chosen to realise their artistic visions and dreams by conducting their own performances. Baborák’s main mentor and model in this has been Maestro Daniel Barenboim, whom Baborák has assisted with the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra. Baborák has also played as a soloist under Barenboim’s baton, taken part in Boulez Ensemble chamber music projects, and taught as a professor at the Barenboim-Said Academy in Berlin.

The initial impulse for Baborák stepping onto the conductor’s podium was an invitation from the musicians of the Mito Chamber Orchestra to stand in for their indisposed chief conductor, Maestro Seiji Ozawa, during a tour of Europe in 2008. Baborák became Ozawa’s pupil, and their work together climaxed at the jubilee 100^th concert of the MCO, at which Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony was heard—Radek Baborák conducted the first two movements, and Seiji Ozawa conducted the third movement and finale.

In 2011 Baborák took the initiative in founding the Czech Sinfonietta, a festival orchestra that he conducts. He is also the chief conductor and since 2013 the artistic director of the Prague Chamber Soloists. In 2017 he was appointed as chief guest conductor of the Yamagata Symphony Orchestra. Radek Baborák’s repertoire includes music of the Baroque, Classical, and Romantic eras as well as works by composers of the 20^th and 21^st centuries including Na'ama Tamir Kaplan, Toshio Hosokawa, John Adams, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Antti Sakari Saario. He has given the world premieres of works by Jean-Gaspard Páleníček, Lukáš Hurník and Aleš Březina and of his own compositions. In 2021 he became the chief conductor of the West-Bohemian Symphony Orchestra.