Acclaimed for his scintillating, authentic and inclusive approach to conducting, Petr Popelka is the General Music Director designate of the Bayrische Staatsoper starting the 2029/30 season. Since the 2024/25 season,, he served as the Chief Conductor at the Wiener Symphoniker. 

Highlights of the 2026/27 season include, in addition to concerts and tours with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, his debuts with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the Orchestra National de France, as well as the Salzburg Festival this summer. He will also return to the Cleveland Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Gewandhaus Orchestra, Staatskapelle Berlin, Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden, Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, and Danish National Symphony Orchestra. He will once again be a guest at the Zurich Opera House with Verdi’s “Don Carlo.

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Previous debuts have taken him to the Berlin Philharmonic, Munich Philharmonic, Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, and NHK Symphony Orchestra, among others.

As a celebrated opera conductor, he made guest appearances at the Bayerische Staatsoper (Káťa Kabanová & Rusalka), Staatsoper Unter den Linden (Tosca), Deutsche Oper Berlin (Tristan und Isolde), Semperoper Dresden (Die Nase), Theater an der Wien (Schwanda & Die Fledermaus), Zurich Opera House (Don Giovanni), Norwegian Opera in Oslo (Elektra), and National Theatre in Prague (Rusalka, Carmen, Le nozze di Figaro)

Petr 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 thereafter, he was appointed as the Chief Conductor at the Norwegian Radio Orchestra in Oslo (2020–2023) and subsequently led the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra (2022–2026). He received his musical training in his hometown of Prague and in Freiburg and is also active as a composer.

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