Pavel Šnajdr

Conductor

Conductor Pavel Šnajdr is a graduate of composition and conducting courses at the Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts (JAMU) in Brno, Czech Republic. A former member of a group of composers who called themselves “The Unmighty Handful,” he won two awards in The Generation Composers Competition. Maestro Šnajdr has been a long-time champion of contemporary music, having so far mounted around 40 premieres of works by contemporary composers with the Brno-based Ars Incognita ensemble, some of which have appeared on CDs. The ensemble appeared in concert at the Prague Spring Festival in 2001, and then again, at the Prague Premieres Festival 2005 in the Dvořák Hall of the Rudolfinum concert house. From 2001 – 2008, Pavel Šnajdr was engaged with the opera company in Plzeň, western Bohemia, conducting both operas (e.g., a highly acclaimed production of Verdi’s Nabucco) and ballets by classical as well as contemporary composers (including the world premiere of the ballet by Zbyněk Matějů, The Garden). He makes regular appearances with the Northern Bohemia Philharmonic Orchestra Teplice (including a semi-stage production of Beethoven’s Fidelio), and with the Hradec Králové Philharmonic Orchestra. From 2004 – 2007 he was a member of the National Theatre in Brno, which he accompanied on a Japanese tour (N. Rimsky-Korsakov: Mozart and Salieri). In May and June 2007 he made several stand-in appearances in Brno, conducting Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet, A. C. Adam’s Le Corsaire, P. I. Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake, L. Minkus’ La Bayadère and L. Delibes’ Sylvia, and at the National Theatre in Bratislava, Slovakia (Le Corsaire).

In 2007 Maestro Šnajdr was invited to work with the Prague State Opera, initially conducting its production of Swan Lake , and in April 2008 the world premiere of the ballet The Phantom of the Opera by the Czech composer Petr Malásek, choreographed by Libor Vaculík. The 2008/2009 season is his first term as a permanent conductor of the State Opera’s ballet productions (he has so far taken charge of My Country, and Cinderella).