- Zdeněk Košler
Zdeněk Košler (
March 25 ,1928 –July 2 ,1995 ) was a Czech conductor, who played an important role in Czech musical life of the second half of 20th century, notably during the sixties and the eighties.Sleeve note of theSupraphon CD (SU 0077-2 632), p. 31] He was particularly well-known as anopera conductor.Life and work
Košler came from a musical family. His father was a member of the Prague National Theatre Orchestra, and his younger brother Miroslav was a choirmaster.
After finishing his studies at the gymnasium he enrolled at the AMU in
Prague . In 1948, still as a student, he began to work as arépétiteur at the Prague´s National Theatre. In that time he began also to gain some experience with the baton. In 1949 Košler joined theOlomouc opera, where he conducted works byLeoš Janáček (The Makropulos Affair) and byW. A. Mozart (Così fan tutte ,The Marriage of Figaro ). In 1959 he won the International Young Conductors Competition inBesançon ,France , and in 1963 he won the respected Mitropoulos conducting competition inNew York , after which he became assistant conductor toLeonard Bernstein at theNew York Philharmonic for one year. From 1962 to 1964 Košler was appointed to theOstrava opera house. He worked also with foreign ensembles and opera houses, conductedRichard Strauss 's opera Salome at theVienna State Opera , performed the complete cycle of Dvořák's symphonies with theVienna Symphony . In the late sixties he also became the guest-conductor at the Comic Opera inBerlin . Košler was hired as the second conductor of theCzech Philharmonic and became the principal conductor of theBratislava opera house in 1971. From 1980 to 1984 he also led the orchestra of the National Theatre in Prague. He retired in 1992.Zdeněk Košler was well-known outside
Czechoslovakia , as he made concert tours toEngland ,Austria ,USA , andCanada . He toured most often toJapan , where he performed with various orchestras thirty times.Notes
References
*Bedřich Smetana: "Dalibor". Sleeve note of the Supraphon CD (SU 0077-2 632) [http://supraphon.cz/cs/katalog/databaze-titulu/detail-titulu/?idtitulu=1222]
External links
* [http://supraphon.cz/cs/katalog/databaze-titulu/vysledky-hledani/?hledany_vyraz=Zden%ECk+Ko%B9ler List of available Supraphon recordings]
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