Marie-Louise Stlle

Jiří Rožeň’s strong identity as a Czech conductor with a broad training is as manifest in his diverse and often adventurous repertoire as in the dynamic trajectory of his career in the Czech Republic and around the world. 

In the 2025/26 season Rožeň conducts in the Czech Republic, Romania, Canada, Ireland, Switzerland and Germany. The Czech premiere of Friedrich Cerha’s epic orchestral cycle Spiegel, with the Hradec Králové Philharmonic, is followed by engagements with the Prague Philharmonia, and the Ostrava Center for New Music. At the start of the season he gives his debut at the Enescu Festival in Bucharest (Enescu’s Symphony No 2 with the Moldova Philharmonic Orchestra Iași), while February 2026 brings the world premiere, presented by Opera Montreal, of Clowns by the composer Ana Sokolović. After Dvořák’s Stabat Mater with the National Orchestra of Ireland, Rožeň finishes the season with a 20th century double bill at the Frankfurt Opera: Weill’s Der Zar läßt sich photographieren and Orff’s Die Kluge. 

Nominated for Emerging Artist of the Year 2025 by the leading German magazine Opernwelt, Rožeň gives further proof of his enterprising spirit in the opera house. At the Prague State Opera in 2024 he conducted the Czech premiere of Ligeti’s Le Grand Macabre (presented under the auspices of the Opera Nova Festival, curated by Rožeň, which also staged the world premiere of Kafka’s Letter to his Father by Jiří Trtík), and, in 2022, the first Czech performance since 1932 of Erwin Schulhoff’s Flammen; directed by Calixto Bieito, the production was nominated for an International Opera Award. Rožeň’s repertoire at the Prague State Opera has also embraced Schoenberg’s Erwartung, Weill’s Die Sieben Todsünden and a pillar of the Czech operatic repertoire, Dvořák’s Rusalka. In 2022 in Ostrava he took charge of the Czech premiere of Luigi Nono’s 1985 ‘tragedia dell’ascolto’ Prometeo and he visited Sweden to conduct Smetana’s The Bartered Bride for Gothenburg Opera. In 2023 he collaborated again with director Barbora Horáková Joly on a new production of Janáček’s Káťa Kabanová for Bergen National Opera. 

In the Czech Republic, Rožeň appeared with the Czech Philharmonic (with which he has recorded Richard Blackford’s Kalon for Signum Classics), Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, Prague Philharmonia, Janáček Philharmonic Ostrava, and Brno Philharmonic. As a proponent of Czech music, two of his signature works are Martinů’s Symphony No 6 (which he has conducted with the Seattle Symphony, BBC Philharmonic, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and Hamburger Symphoniker) and Miloslav Kabeláč’s Symphony No 4 (Czech Philharmonic, Prague Philharmonia, Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Ulster Orchestra, Camerata Salzburg, Musikkollegium Winterthur and NOSPR Katowice). 

Rožeň’s substantial schedule has also taken him to the UK (Royal Philharmonic, Hallé, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Royal Scottish National, Scottish Chamber Orchestra), Germany (Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, MDR-Sinfonieorchester Leipzig, Hessisches Staatsorchester Wiesbaden, Staatsorchester Kassel, Bochumer Symphoniker), Slovakia (Slovak Philharmonic, Slovak State Philharmonic Orchestra), France (Orchestre National de Metz), the Netherlands (Philharmonie Zuidnederland), Belgium (Orchestre National de Belgique, Brussels Philharmonic, Flanders Symphony, Antwerp Symphony, Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège), the Nordics (Danish Radio Symphony, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Aalborg Symphony, Stavanger Symphony Orchestra), Spain (Orquesta Sinfónica de las Islas Baleares), the USA (Utah Symphony, Naples Philharmonic), Japan (Hiroshima Symphony) and China (Nanjing Forest Music Festival). Rožeň’s European festival appearances have included the Prague Spring Festival, Dvořák Prague Festival, Leoš Janáček International Music Festival and Janáček Brno Festival. 

Among the soloists with whom Jiří Rožeň has collaborated are the singers Pavol Breslik, Lawrence Brownlee, Pavel Černoch, Victoria Khoroshunova, Kateřina Kněžíková, Ausrine Stundyte and the instrumentalists Mahan Esfahani, Kirill Gerstein, Vadim Gluzman, Andrei Ionita, Christian Schmitt, Josef Špaček, Lukáš Vondráček, Inmo Yang and the members of the Janoska Ensemble. 

Born in 1991, Jiří Rožeň gained his formative experience as both an orchestral and operatic conductor after studies in Prague, Salzburg, Hamburg, Zurich and Glasgow (as Leverhulme Conducting Fellow at The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland). He went on to become a finalist at both the Nestlé and Salzburg Festival Young Conductors Award and the Donatella Flick LSO Conducting Competition, and to spend two years as Assistant Conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, working closely with Donald Runnicles and Thomas Dausgaard during the season and at London’s BBC Proms and Edinburgh International Festival. He has been mentored by such figures as Garry Walker, Dennis Russell Davies, Ulrich Windfuhr and Johannes Schlaefli and, through masterclasses working under the guidance of leading conductors including Bernard Haitink, David Zinman, Daniele Gatti, Peter Eötvös and Jukka-Pekka Saraste.   

2025/2026

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Tibor Bogányi’s performances are hallmarked by artistic diversity and virtuosic interpretation. In 2002, while still in his twenties, he became principal conductor of the Turku Symphony Orchestra, remaining in the role until 2006; from 2008 to 2014 he was chief conductor and artistic director of the Lappeenranta City Orchestra, and from 2018 to 2024, chief conductor of the Pori Sinfonietta. In addition, he has conducted the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Finnish Radio Symphony, Lahti Symphony and Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra, and in 2006 made his first appearance with the Finnish National Opera. His repertoire of stage works ranges from Mozart (Così fan tutte, Don Giovanni) to Verdi (Macbeth, La traviata), Bizet (Carmen), Stravinsky (Rite of Spring) and Bartók (Bluebeard’s Castle, The Miraculous Mandarin, The Wooden Prince).

From 2011 to 2023 Bogányi was chief conductor of the Pannon Philharmonic of Pécs – he is now its’ principal guest conductor. Since his debut appearances with the Hungarian State Opera in 2014 (Boito’s Mefistofele and Puccini’s Tosca), he has established a close relationship with the company.

Now based in Vienna, Tibor Bogányi conducts regularly at the city’s Musikverein and Konzerthaus. In addition to orchestras from his home countries of Hungary and Finland, he has conducted such ensembles as the Bochumer Symphoniker, Bruckner Orchester Linz, Copenhagen Philharmonic, Saint Petersburg Symphony, Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz, Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, Mexico State Symphony, Tonkünstler Orchester Niederösterreich and Kwa Zulu-Natal Philharmonic. Soloists with whom he has collaborated include Kristóf Baráti, Andrei Gavrilov, Ilya Gringolts, Gary Hoffman, Zoltán Kocsis, Dejan Lazić, Miklós Perényi, Benjamin Schmid and Dénes Várjon.

For Tibor Bogányi, conducting forms the springboard for a diversity of creative projects. Established as a distinguished cellist and conductor – especially of late-Romantic, 20^th century and contemporary works – he forged a new path in 2018 as director of a spectacular multimedia production of Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana. In partnership with the Hungarian State Opera in Budapest, it has since been staged dozens of times to sold-out houses. In 2025 Bogányi again teamed up with visual artist Ágnes Zászkaliczky, this time in collaboration with Hungary’s Győr Philharmonic Orchestra, tolaunch Vivaldi: The Four Seasons in Venice. The first performance took place in August in Budapest. In re-imagining the classical concert format, both these productions fuse live musical performance with dance, painterly imagery and sophisticated video sequences, creating a completely new experience for contemporary audiences.

The son of a choral conductor, Tibor Bogányi was born in Hungary and as a child he studied cello at the Kodály Institute of the Liszt Academy. When he was nine years old his family moved to Finland. His talents on the cello took him to Arto Noras’ class at Helsinki’s Sibelius Academy, where he subsequently became a conducting student, learning his craft from two legendary figures – Jorma Panula and Leif Segerstam – and also receiving tuition from János Fürst at the Paris Conservatoire. In 2017 he was awarded the Hungarian Gold Cross of Merit

2025 / 2026

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