Overview
Tomáš Hanus began his tenure as WNO Music Director in Autumn 2016 and made his WNO concert debut conducting Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony No 2 at St David’s Hall, Cardiff. Since then, he has conducted WNO Orchestra in concert and opera performances around the UK and the world, most recently at the opening concert of the Prague Spring International Music Festival in May 2023.
Born in Brno in 1970, Tomáš is recognised as one of the Czech Republic’s most exciting and important conductors. Since coming to prominence during the Conductors’ International Competition in Katowice in 1999, he has conducted at major European opera houses including the Wiener Staatsoper, Bayerische Staatsoper Munich, Royal Danish Opera, Oslo Opera House, Teatro Real Madrid and the Teatro alla Scala. In demand as a conductor of symphonic music, he has conducted many prestigious orchestras including the London Symphony Orchestra, SWR Symphonieorchester Baden-Baden, Czech Philharmonic, and the BBC Symphony Orchestra.
Tomáš made his operatic debut with WNO conducting Der Rosenkavalier and Die Fledermaus in 2017 and went on to conduct WNO’s critically acclaimed Russian Season in Autumn 2017. He has continued to conduct WNO productions including Prokofiev’s War and Peace and Rossini’s La Cenerentola and The Barber of Seville. Hanus has championed the works of Leoš Janáček through WNO’s Janáček Cycle, which began in the Autumn 2019 Season with The Cunning Little Vixen and concluded with the five-star reviewed The Makropulos Affair in WNO’s Autumn 2022 Season, followed by a performance at the prestigious Janáček Festival, Brno.
The role of WNO Music Director is supported by Marian and Gordon Pell
What’s On Stage[Tomáš Hanus] wove a rich tapestry of confections from the extravagant score in a reading of delicate tenutos, sensitive tempo choices and impeccable orchestral playing
The Guardian… fiery and fabulous tribute to Mahler
An afternoon of choral masterpieces and hopeful beauty