The title of Composer-in-Residence is being awarded by the Czech Philharmonic for only the second time. A residency entails the presentation of several works by a living composer within a single season, encompassing both orchestral and chamber music. It includes earlier compositions—among them Czech premieres—as well as one world premiere.
Thomas Adès ranks among the most prominent figures of the current generation of composers and conductors. He studied piano at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama with Paul Berkowitz and composition with Robert Saxton. He continued his studies at King's College Cambridge, where he worked with Alexander Goehr and Robin Holloway. He was later appointed Professor of Composition at the Royal Academy of Music, and in 2004 the University of Essex awarded him an honorary doctorate.
In Adès’s music, the order and control of the modernist tradition meet an extraordinary imaginative flair. He combines intellectual precision with an immediate expressive power. The list of his works regularly returning to the stages of leading international orchestras is long and stylistically diverse. To date, he has composed three operas – The Exterminating Angel (2016), The Tempest (2004), and Powder Her Face (1995). These premiered at such prestigious venues as the Salzburg Festival, the Metropolitan Opera, and the Royal Opera House, and have received numerous accolades, including “World Premiere of the Year” at the International Opera Awards, the Royal Philharmonic Society Award, and a Gramophone Award.
His orchestral works have likewise earned widespread acclaim, notably Asyla, premiered in 1997 by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (which later received the Grawemeyer Award), and Tevot, premiered by the Berlin Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall in 2007.
Alongside his compositional work, Thomas Adès is deeply engaged in performance, artistic leadership, and teaching. Since 2016, he has served as Artistic Partner of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, conducting selected concerts, performing chamber music with its members, and directing its Festival of Contemporary Music. Each year, he also teaches piano and chamber music at the International Musicians Seminar in Prussia Cove.
The works of the London-born composer, who has described composition as a process of “organising chaos,” are not new to audiences at the Rudolfinum. In 2018, the Czech Philharmonic rehearsed and performed his Totentanz under the composer’s direction. In December 2025, Adès returned to conduct his Air – Homage to Sibelius and The Exterminating Angel Symphony, both in their Czech premieres.
