Ondrej Lenard Appointed Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra Chief Conductor as of 2011/2012
On Monday, 22 November 2010, the interim Director General of Czech Radio Mgr. art. Peter Duhan signed together with conductor Ondrej Lenard an agreement upon which Mr Ondrej Lenard, the prominent artistic personality, has been appointed the new Chief Conductor of Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra (SOČR) for the period of 1 September 2011 until 30 June 2014. Ondrej Lenard belongs among the stable co-workers of SOČR for several years. Besides the regular SOČR concerts within its concert season, Ondrej Lenard repeatedly performed with the symphony orchestra also at events such as the International Music Festival Litomyšl. During the current running season Ondrej Lenard will be conducting the Symphony No. 3 by Mahler at SOČR´s concert on 11th April.
The graduate of Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava achieved valuable artistic experience through the cooperation with professional ensembles already during his studies. After the graduation in 1962, Lenard begun his artistic career as the Choirmaster and Conductor of the Opera of The Slovak National Theatre in Bratislava where he acted as the Chief Conductor during the years 1984 – 1986 and later as the Director of Opera (1997 – 1998). Since 1970 Lenard was the Conductor and during the years 1977 – 1990 the Chief Conductor of The Symphony Orchestra of Slovak Radio in Bratislava. Dedicated work, spontaneous musical and original approach towards every interpreted composition and his achieved results directed him towards the cooperation with The Slovak Philharmonic during the decade of 1991 - 2001 (since 1991 as the Chief Conductor, during 1993 – 2001 as the Artistic Director).
Simultaneously since 1978 Lenard acted as the permanent visiting conductor of The Japan Shinsei Symphony Orchestra in Tokyo and in 1993 he became the Chief Conductor and Music Director of this renowned Japanese orchestra. In 2000 Lenard has been named the Honorary Conductor of the Tokyo Philharmonic.
Ondrej Lenard has been cooperating with leading European orchestras and soloists (Peter Dvorsky, Gabriela Benackova, Jelena Obrazcovova, Mirella Freni, Piero Cappuccilli, Eva Urbanova, Sergej Kopcak, and many others). He has been conducting performances at The Vienna State Opera, Houston Grand Opera, The Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, Teatro San Carlo in Naples, The Hungarian State Opera in Budapest, The National Theatre and The State Opera in Prague, he has also been performing as a guest in Canada, Brazil, USA, Japan. He has produced over thousand of radio recordings, his discography includes recordings for Opus, Naxos, Marco Polo and HNH International – for this organisation he has recorded twenty compact discs. Numerous of artist’s notable achievements with the interpretation of symphonic as well as opera literature constitute an important part of the fond collection of Slovak Television.
In 1974, Ondrej Lenard became the Laureate of International Conductors Competition in Budapest, he received the Ludovit Stur Order (1998) and in 2002 he received the Honorary Doctorate of the Matej Bela University in Banska Bystrica.
For further information, please, contact:
Mrs Jitka Novotna, SOČR, Czech Radio, email: jitka.novotna@rozhlas.cz, phone: +420 602 159 157.
socr.rozhlas.cz
Mgr. Rene Zavoral
Communications and External Relations Director
Czech Radio
Phone. +420 221 551 310