Conductor Zdeněk Klauda (* 1979) is a complex artistic personality. Along with the conducting career Zdeněk works in musical production at Prague National Theatre and occupies the dramaturg role at Jakub Jan Ryba Festival. He began his international career in 2008 by participating in musical production of Dvořák’s Rusalka at the Salzburg Festival. Ever since then Zdeněk has been regularly invited to work with such prestigious European opera houses as the Bavarian State Opera, the Sepmeroper in Dresden, Vienna State Opera, and the Paris Opera. Zdeněk took part in musical preparation of the Glyndebourne Festival’s Cunning Little Vixen by Janáček in 2012 and Le Nozze di Figaro by Mozart in 2013. In 2012 he also took the 3rd prize at the Conducting Competition in Constanta, Romania. In the meantime he collaborated with such conductors as Franz Welser-Möst, Kyrill Petrenko, Vladimir Jurowski, and Tomáš Netopil.
Zdeněk is the founder and chief conductor of Chamber Philharmonic L‘Armonia Terrena, the chamber orchestra that brings together Czech musical cream of the crop. The orchestra released three CDs under the label Nibiru Publishers. The first one, ‘DECADE’, included works of Mozart and Mysliveček and featured soprano Simona Šaturová. The next one was the recording of the international premiere of Jakub Jan Ryba’s ‘Stabat Mater’. The recording won a prestigious award DIAPASON DÉCOUVERTE. The most recent CD, Antonín Rejcha’s ‘Requiem’, was released in September, 2019.
Zdeněk is often invited to be a guest conductor at Czech orchestras (e.g., South Czech Philharmonic, Philharmonic in Hradec Králové, Moravian Philharmonic in Olomouc, and Chamber Philharmonic in Pardubice), opera houses (e.g., National Moravian-Silesian Theatre in Ostrava), and national music festivals (e.g., St. Wenceslas Music Festival). He regularly accompanies top Czech and world opera singers, such as Simona Šaturová, Adam Plachetka, and Veronika Dzhioeva.
He made his debut on the stage of the Novaya Opera in Moscow in 2018. Then he conducted the world premiere of Augustýn Šenkýř’s oratorio Dies Numini et Principi in Prague National Theatre in the same year. From January to February, 2019 Zdeněk was engaged in musical preparation of Smetana’s ‘The Bartered Bride’ at the Sepmeroper in Dresden, made his debut with the State Philharmonic in Košice, and took part in the production of Mozart’s ‘The Magic Flute’ in Prague National Theatre. He conducted ‘Le Nozze di Figaro’ at Prague National Theatre in season 2019/2020. Zdeněk and his chamber orchestra were also guest performers of the Czech Society for Chamber Music at the Czech National Philharmonic in the same season.