Robert Kružík

Conductor and cellist Robert Kružík was born in Brno in 1990. From the age of six he attended private cello lessons with Bedřich Havlík. He then continued his studies at the Brno Conservatory, where in addition to playing the cello under the direction of Miroslav Zicha, he also enrolled in the field of conducting. He developed his previous conducting experience, acquired privately with Evžen Holiš, at the conservatory in the class of Stanislav Kummer. He also studied both disciplines at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague: conducting (Leoš Svárovský, Charles Olivieri-Munroe, Lubomír Mátl) and playing the cello with Miroslav Petráš. In the academic year 2012/2013, he attended the Zürcher Hochschule der Künste in Switzerland. Robert Kružík has demonstrated his talent in many cello competitions: Prague Spring, Bohuslav Martinů Foundation Competition, Leoš Janáček International Competition in Brno, etc. Robert Kružík is also active in conducting as well as cello. While still studying at the conservatory in Brno, he developed his conducting skills as the chief conductor of the Chamber Orchestra of the City of Blansko and the Helfert Orchestral Association in Brno. Upon his arrival at the AMU in Prague, he received an offer to become the chief conductor of the Cologne Philharmonic, where he worked for four seasons. He regularly cooperates with many Czech orchestras: Brno Philharmonic, PKF – Prague Philharmonic, Janáček Philharmonic Ostrava, Prague Chamber Orchestra, Ensemble Opera Diversa and South Bohemian Chamber Philharmonic. Since 2014, he has worked with the Janáček Opera National Theater as an assistant conductor on the productions of the operas Maria di Rohan, Vec Makropulos, Hry o Marii and Tosca and as the second conductor on the production of the opera Hubička. Since January 2016, he has been the permanent conductor of the Janáček Opera NdB. Since September 2016, he has also been the conductor of the Moravian-Silesian National Theater in Ostrava, where he has been working since last year as the second conductor of Bohuslav Martinů's production of Three Wishes or the Flirty of Life.