Libor Pešek
Conductor
Belongs to noted personalities of Czech and international musical scene. During 1987-97 he served as artistic advisor and principal conductor of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. Nowadays he holds the post of conductor laureate and still enjoys a close relationship with the orchestra. In his capacity as their principal conductor, Mr Pešek took the RLPO on their first tour of the USA which was greeted with great critical acclaim. In May 1993 they performed the opening two concerts of the Prague Spring Festival, the first time a non-Czech orchestra was honoured with such an invitation, and they returned there in May 1996. Pešek and the RLPO have also toured Far East and many European countries (e.g. Spain, Austria, Germany). Libor Pešek has been regular visitor to the Proms in Royal Albert Hall and has been repeatedly invited to Edinburgh Festival.
He has guest conducted for prominent American orchestras: Los Angeles, San Francisco, Minnesota, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Chicago and many others. He has also cooperated with a number of European orchestras: the leading orchestras in London, Orchestre National de France, the Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra, La Scala, the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Dresden Staatskapelle to name a few. The artist has recorded extensively for Virgin Classics, BMG, EMI, Victor Entertainment and Supraphon. His complete Dvořák symphonies with the Czech Philharmonic and Royal Liverpool Philharmonic orchestras received the greatest acclaim.
Libor Pešek was born in 1933 and studied conducting at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague under Václav Neumann and Václav Smetáček. In 1958 he founded the Prague Chamber Harmony and with them established his conducting career in the former Czechoslovakia. Later he worked with Sebastian Chamber Orchestra, North Czech Philharmonic in Teplice, Czech Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra Pardubice and orchestras in the Netherlands. In 1980 he was named the chief conductor of the Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra and also served as a conductor for the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra and Prague Symphony Orchestra. At the present time he serves as main conductor of Prague Proms Festival and since 2007 as chief conductor of Czech National Symphony Orchestra.
In March 1996, during her visit to Czech Republic Queen Elizabeth II made Libor Pešek a Knight of the British Empire and in 1997 the President of the Czech Republic, Václav Havel presented him with a medal "For Service to the Country, 1st Degree". The University of Liverpool awarded him an honorary doctorate, and an honorary fellowship was awarded to him by the University of Central Lancashire.
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