Ondrej Lenárd will head SOČR from the 2011/2012 season
On Monday 22 November 2010 the interim director of Czech Radio Mgr. Peter Duhan and conductor Ondrej Lenárd signed a contract on the appointment of this distinctive musical figure as the new Chief Conductor of the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra; Lenárd’s appointment will begin on 1 September 2011 and his tenure will end on 30 June 2014. Ondrej Lenárd has been working regularly with the Radio Orchestra for several years now. Apart from concerts in the SOČR subscription series, they have also appeared together, for instance, at the International Music Festival Smetana’s Litomyšl. During this current season Lenárd will conduct the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra in a performance of Mahler’s Symphony No. 3 at a subscription concert on 11 April.
Ondrej Lenárd studied at the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava in the class of Professor Ludovít Rajter. In the course of his studies, he obtained valuable artistic experience whilst collaborating with professional ensembles. After completing his studies in 1962, he began his artistic career as a choirmaster and conductor with the Opera of the Slovak National Theatre in Bratislava, where he was chief conductor in the years 1984-1986 and subsequently served as opera director (1997-1998). In 1970, he became a conductor with the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra in Bratislava, where he was chief conductor from 1977 to 1990. In the following decade (1991-2001), his systematic work, as well as his original and spontaneous musical approach to the pieces performed and the results achieved, led him to collaborate with the Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra (chief conductor from 1991 and artistic director in the years 1993-2001).
In the same period, he also became a permanent guest conductor of the Japan Shinsei Symphony Orchestra in Tokyo in 1978. He subsequently became chief conductor and musical director of this renowned Japanese orchestra in 1993. He was made an honorary conductor of the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra in 2000.
Lenárd collaborates with leading European orchestras and soloists (Peter Dvorský, Gabriela Beňačková, Elena Obraztsova, Mirella Freni, Piero Cappuccilli, Eva Urbanová, Sergej Kopčák among others). He has conducted at the Vienna State Opera, the Houston Grand Opera, the Teatro Liceo in Barcelona, the Teatro San Carlo in Naples, the State Opera in Budapest, as well as the National Theatre and State Opera in Prague. He has made guest appearances in Canada, Brazil, the USA and Japan. Among other things, his recent work has included productions of Puccini’s Tosca with the Prague State Opera ensemble in Salzburg (2006), Verdi’s A Masked Ball with the Nikkai Opera Company in Tokyo (2007) and a series of concerts with the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra (2008). The year before last he conducted the opening night of The Bartered Bride at the National Theatre and La Bohéme at the Prague State Opera.
Lenárd had made more than a thousand radio recordings. His discography includes recordings for Opus, Naxos, Marco Polo and HNH International (for whom he has recorded 20 CDs). Several of his artistically noteworthy performances of symphonic and operatic works are also to be found in the archive collections of Slovakia’s national television station.
In 1974, Lenárd was a prize winner at the International Conductors’ Competition in Budapest. He is a recipient of Slovakia’s Order of Ľudovít Štúr award (1998), and he accepted an honorary doctorate from Matej Bel University in Banská Bystrica in 2002.
