The Most Famous
CONDUCTORS from Czechia
This page contains a list of the greatest Czech Conductors. The pantheon dataset contains 128 Conductors, 4 of which were born in Czechia. This makes Czechia the birth place of the 11th most number of Conductors behind Poland, and France.
Top 6
The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the most legendary Czech Conductors of all time. This list of famous Czech Conductors is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity.
1. Rafael Kubelík (1914 - 1996)
With an HPI of 59.72, Rafael Kubelík is the most famous Czech Conductor. His biography has been translated into 27 different languages on wikipedia.
Rafael Jeroným Kubelík, KBE (29 June 1914 – 11 August 1996) was a Czech conductor and composer. The son of a distinguished violinist, Jan Kubelík, he was trained in Prague and made his debut with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra at the age of 19. Having managed to maintain a career in Czechoslovakia under the Nazi occupation, he refused to work under what he considered a "second tyranny" after the Communist Czechoslovak coup d'état of 1948, and took refuge in Britain. He became a Swiss citizen in 1967. Kubelík was music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (1950–53), musical director of The Royal Opera, Covent Garden (1955–58). In 1957, he conducted and recorded the World premiere Berlioz's Les Troyens. From 1961 to 1979, he was music director of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, and was a frequent guest conductor for leading orchestras in Europe and America. As a composer, Kubelík wrote in a neo-romantic idiom. His works include five operas, three symphonies, chamber music, choral works, and songs.
2. Václav Neumann (1920 - 1995)
With an HPI of 56.27, Václav Neumann is the 2nd most famous Czech Conductor. His biography has been translated into 26 different languages.
Václav Neumann (29 October 1920 – 2 September 1995) was a Czech conductor, violinist, violist, and opera director.
3. Karel Ančerl (1908 - 1973)
With an HPI of 53.83, Karel Ančerl is the 3rd most famous Czech Conductor. His biography has been translated into 18 different languages.
Karel Ančerl (11 April 1908 – 3 July 1973) was a Czechoslovak conductor and composer, renowned especially for his performances of contemporary music and for his interpretations of music by Czech composers. Ančerl was born into a prosperous Jewish family in the village of Tučapy in southern Bohemia. After graduating from the Prague Conservatory, he pursued his conducting studies under Hermann Scherchen and Václav Talich. He was the assistant conductor at the Munich premiere of Alois Hába's quarter-tone opera Mother (1931) and conducted the orchestra of the avant-garde theatre Osvobozené divadlo in Prague (1931–1933). Conducting work for Czechoslovak radio was interrupted by World War II which resulted in his being imprisoned with his family in the Theresienstadt concentration camp in 1942 and then sent to Auschwitz in 1944. Unlike his wife and young son, Ančerl survived Auschwitz. After the war, Ančerl conducted for Radio Prague until 1950, when he became artistic director of the Czech Philharmonic, a post he held successfully for eighteen years. Following the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia, Ančerl emigrated to Toronto, Canada, where he worked as music director of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra until his death in 1973. As a conductor, Ančerl helped foster a distinctly Czech orchestral sound, both within the Czech Philharmonic and elsewhere. Highly regarded also as a studio artist, Ančerl made a wide range of recordings on the Supraphon label, including repertoire by various Czech composers (remastered in the Karel Ančerl Gold Edition).
4. Jiří Bělohlávek (1946 - 2017)
With an HPI of 50.48, Jiří Bělohlávek is the 4th most famous Czech Conductor. His biography has been translated into 20 different languages.
Jiří Bělohlávek, (Czech pronunciation: [jɪr̝iː bjɛloɦlaːvɛk]; 24 February 1946 – 31 May 2017) was a Czech conductor. He was a leading interpreter of Czech classical music, and became chief conductor of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra in 1990, a role he would serve on two occasions during a combined span of seven years (1990–92, 2012–17). He also served a six-year tenure as the chief conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra from 2006 to 2012. He gained international renown and repute for his performances of the works of Czech composers such as Antonín Dvořák and Bohuslav Martinů, and was credited as "the most profound proponent of Czech orchestral music" by Czech music specialist Professor Michael Beckerman.
5. Zdeněk Mácal (1936 - 2023)
With an HPI of 50.14, Zdeněk Mácal is the 5th most famous Czech Conductor. His biography has been translated into 15 different languages.
Zdeněk Mácal (Czech: [ˈzdɛɲɛk ˈmaːtsal]; 8 January 1936 – 25 October 2023) was a Czech conductor who worked internationally. The promising conductor who had won international competitions left his home country of Czechoslovakia in 1968 when the Warsaw Pact ended the Prague Spring, to return only after communism ended there. He was chief conductor of the WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne from 1970, the NDR Orchestra of Hanover, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra in 1986, then the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra until 1995, the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra from 1993, and finally the Czech Philharmonic from 2003 to 2007. He conducted all major orchestras of the world and was prolific in recording. One focus of his broad repertoire was Czech music, including contemporary music.
6. Martin Turnovský (1928 - 2021)
With an HPI of 47.07, Martin Turnovský is the 6th most famous Czech Conductor. His biography has been translated into 15 different languages.
Martin Turnovský (29 September 1928 – 19 May 2021) was a Czech conductor whose career flourished under the guidance of George Szell, but was hampered by the communist regime.
People
Pantheon has 6 people classified as Czech conductors born between 1908 and 1946. Of these 6, none of them are still alive today. The most famous deceased Czech conductors include Rafael Kubelík, Václav Neumann, and Karel Ančerl. As of April 2024, 2 new Czech conductors have been added to Pantheon including Zdeněk Mácal, and Martin Turnovský.
Deceased Czech Conductors
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Rafael Kubelík
1914 - 1996
HPI: 59.72
Václav Neumann
1920 - 1995
HPI: 56.27
Karel Ančerl
1908 - 1973
HPI: 53.83
Jiří Bělohlávek
1946 - 2017
HPI: 50.48
Zdeněk Mácal
1936 - 2023
HPI: 50.14
Martin Turnovský
1928 - 2021
HPI: 47.07
Newly Added Czech Conductors (2024)
Go to all RankingsOverlapping Lives
Which Conductors were alive at the same time? This visualization shows the lifespans of the 5 most globally memorable Conductors since 1700.
