Petr Popelka
Petr Popelka’s 2025–26 season is underscored by the Wiener Symphoniker’s 125th anniversary celebration, with a gala concert followed by tours throughout Europe and Asia. In addition to various performances at the Wiener Konzerthaus and Musikverein, Popelka and the Symphoniker will launch the second edition of their “Primavera da Vienna” festival in Trieste, following its success last season.
Further highlights of the season include Popelka’s debuts with the Berlin Philharmonic, Munich Philharmonic, and Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, as well as his returns to The Cleveland Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, and Gewandhausorchester Leipzig. With the Czech Philharmonic, he will embark on a summer festival tour to Grafenegg and the George Enescu Festival.
As an acclaimed opera conductor, Popelka will lead a new production of Strauss, Jr.’s Die Fledermaus with the Wiener Symphoniker at the Theater an der Wien. Furthermore, he will conduct Tosca at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin and return to the Bayerische Staatsoper for Rusalka during the 2026 Munich Opera Festival.
Previous debuts have taken Popelka to the Staatskapelle Berlin, Staatskapelle Dresden, Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Danish National Symphony Orchestra, and the NHK Symphony Orchestra, among others. Last season, he appeared in prestigious televised concerts such as the Czech Philharmonic’s Velvet Revolution concert and the 2024 Nobel Prize Concert with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra. In the opera pit, he made guest appearances at the Zurich Opera House (Mozart’s Don Giovanni), Bayerische Staatsoper (Janáček’s Káťa Kabanová), Deutsche Oper Berlin (Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde), Semperoper Dresden (Shostakovich’s The Nose), and Theater an der Wien (Weinberger’s Schwanda the Bagpiper).
Popelka began his conducting career during the 2019–20 season after serving as deputy principal double bassist at the Staatskapelle Dresden from 2010 to 2019. Shortly after, he was appointed chief conductor at the Norwegian Radio Orchestra in Oslo (2020–23). He received his musical training in his hometown of Prague and in Freiburg.