Jiří Rožeň was born in Prague in 1991 and studied conducting at the universities of Prague, Salzburg, Hamburg, Zurich and Glasgow. The former assistant conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra has already established a reputation as one of the leading interpreters of the Czech repertoire.
About the artist
Young conductor on the road to success
Jiří Rožeň’s international presence continues to grow rapidly in the 2021/22 season as he makes his debuts with leading orchestras and continues to develop his reputation as one of the foremost interpreters of Czech repertoire.
Recent debut performances have included appearances with the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra Katowice, Danish National Symphony, Orquesta Sinfonica de Tenerife, St. Gallen Symphony Orchestra, Geneva Chamber, Czech Radio Symphony at the Dvořák Prague Festival and Pilsen Philharmonic. In the 2021/22 season, symphonic debuts include concerts with the Aalborg Symphony, Scottish Chamber, Hallé, MDR Leipzig and Slovak Philharmonic. Soloist collaborations have featured internationally recognised names such as Esther Yoo, Kian Soltani, Kirill Gerstein, Vadim Gluzman, Lukáš Vondráček and Lawrence Brownlee. This season sees Rožeň making his opera debut in Prague conducting multiple productions at the Prague National Theatre State Opera – Rusalka, a double bill of Weill’s Seven Deadly Sins and Schoenberg’s Erwartung and Schulhoff’s Flammen. The performance of Flammen will be the first in the Czech Republic for 90 years since its 1932 premier in Brno.
As a passionate and knowledgeable advocate of Czech music, he regularly presents standard Czech repertoire, as well as music by Bohuslav Martinů, Josef Suk, Leoš Janáček, Viktor Kalabis and Miloslav Kabeláč. He has conducted one of his signature works, Symphony No.4 by Miloslav Kabeláč on various occasions including Austrian premiere with Camerata Salzburg at Salzburg Festival and his conducting debut at Prague Spring Festival with PKF-Prague Philharmonia. Highlights of the 2019/20 season included debuts with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Royal Liverpool Philharmonic. He also conducted all the major orchestras in Belgium – Orchestre national de Belgique, Brussels Philharmonic, Antwerp Symphony Orchestra as well as Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège, and appeared elsewhere with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Stavanger Symphony Orchestra, Poznan Philharmonic and Staatsorchester Kassel. Rožeň appeared at two prestigious international festivals, returning to Prague Spring Festival with PKF-Prague Philharmonia, performing a special streamed concert in light of the pandemic and debuting in China at the Forest Festival in Nanjing with Jiangsu Symphony Orchestra.
Rožeň is increasingly at home in the pit and during his time in Scotland he conducted Stravinsky’s Mavra, Walton’s The Bear and Strauss’ Die Fledermaus. Elsewhere, he has conducted Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortilegès with the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra as well as Sven Daigger’s Eine Kluge Else at the Brücken-Festival für Neue Musik in Rostock
Born in Prague in 1991, Jiří Rožeň studied conducting at conservatoires and universities of Prague, Salzburg, Hamburg, Zürich and Glasgow, where he was Leverhulme Conducting Fellow. He has seen success in Salzburg and London as the Finalist of both the Nestlé and Salzburg Festival Young Conductors Award and the Donatella Flick LSO Conducting Competition. Formerly Assistant Conductor at the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Jiří was working alongside Donald Runnicles and Thomas Dausgaard and assisted them at the BBC Proms and the Edinburgh International Festival. His mentors have included Garry Walker, Dennis Russell Davies, Ulrich Windfuhr and Johannes Schlaefli. Other important influences include Daniele Gatti, Bernard Haitink, David Zinman and Peter Eötvös in masterclasses with orchestras such as the Concertgebouworkest, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich.
