Zbyněk Müller

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 - general music director of the opera of  F.X. Šalda Theatre, Liberec

 - conductor of The National Theatre Opera, Prague.

 - oboist

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​Zbyněk Müller began his musical education at the age of six, when he started studying the piano. He went on to study the oboe and conducting at the Prague Conservatory and subsequently at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, where his teachers included F. X. Thuri, M. Klemens, J. Mihule and J. Bělohlávek.

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Oboist and Orchestral Musician

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During his studies, Müller distinguished himself in a number of international competitions. In 1989, he won the Concertino Praga International Competition, and in 1996 he became a laureate of the Prague Spring International Music Competition. That same year, he received the Josef Hlávka Prize.

He was also an active chamber musician. With a wind quintet, he won the Prix Mercure in Semmering, Austria, and he recorded as a soloist for Czech Radio.

After several years of performing with various Prague orchestras, his orchestral career culminated in a ten-year engagement as Principal Oboe of the Prague Philharmonia.

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Conducting Career

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Müller began his conducting career with the Prague Philharmonia, where over the course of ten years he conducted more than 50 concerts. He also appeared as both soloist and conductor in the same performances. He continues to return to the orchestra as a guest conductor; his most recent collaborations included a concert at the Prague Spring Festival and a tour of China.

From 2001 to 2002, he served as assistant to Chief Conductor Vladimir Ashkenazy at the Czech Philharmonic. During this period, he gained valuable experience working alongside a number of other distinguished conductors, including L. Segerstam, C. P. Flor, Z. Mácal and M. Honeck.

In the 2004/05 season, he served as Chief Conductor of the Kladno Symphony Orchestra. He made his successful debut with the Prague Symphony Orchestra (FOK) in 2004 and with the Czech Philharmonic in 2010.

In addition to collaborating with most of the major Czech symphony orchestras, Müller has conducted orchestras abroad, including the Miskolc Symphony Orchestra in Hungary, the Toho Gakuen Orchestra in Japan, the Baltic Philharmonic in Gdańsk and the Pomeranian Philharmonic in Bydgoszcz in Poland, and Filarmonica Marchigiana in Italy.

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State Philharmonic Košice

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One of the most significant chapters of Müller’s conducting career was his thirteen-season tenure as Chief Conductor of the State Philharmonic Košice from 2008 to 2021.

During his tenure, he conducted numerous major works from the international symphonic repertoire, large-scale vocal-instrumental works and a substantial number of works by Slovak composers.

With the State Philharmonic Košice, he recorded a CD featuring Ján Cikker’s Symphonic Triptych and another featuring the piano concertos of Ernő Dohnányi with Ladislav Fanzowitz. Both recordings received Radio_Head Awards, in 2021 and 2023 respectively.

Under his direction, the orchestra undertook successful tours of Hungary, Poland, Germany and China. He also conducted the orchestra at its first-ever appearance at the Prague Spring Festival and at the Konzerthaus Berlin. He continues to return regularly to the State Philharmonic Košice as a guest conductor.

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Opera - Prague National Theatre

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Zbyněk Müller’s operatic repertoire comprises more than 40 titles.

He has collaborated with the National Theatre in Prague since 2000 and has conducted productions including:

• W. A. Mozart: Don Giovanni, The Magic Flute, The Marriage of Figaro

• L. Janáček: Fate, The Cunning Little Vixen

• F. Cilea: Adriana Lecouvreur

• G. Verdi: Aida, La traviata

• G. Puccini: Turandot, Gianni Schicchi

• R. Wagner: Lohengrin

• C. W. Gluck: Orpheus and Eurydice

• B. Martinů: The Greek Passion

• S. Prokofiev: The Love for Three Oranges

• G. Bizet: Carmen

• C. Saint-Saëns: Samson and Delilah

• A. Dvořák: Rusalka, The Jacobin

• J. Offenbach: The Tales of Hoffmann

• I. Stravinsky: The Nightingale

• P. I. Tchaikovsky: Iolanta

• L. Ferrero: La Conquista (2005, the world premiere)

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With the National Theatre ensemble, he has appeared at major international festivals and opera venues, including the Janáček Festival in Brno, in Düsseldorf, at the International May Festival in Wiesbaden, in South Korea, in Ravenna, Italy, and in Miskolc, Hungary. He has also conducted performances at the Pafos Aphrodite Opera Festival in Cyprus and in Japan.

At the National Theatre, he has also been responsible for the musical preparation of Smetana’s operas The Secret and The Kiss, whose premieres at the Smetana’s Litomyšl Festival were recorded by Czech Television.

His highly acclaimed productions have included Britten’s Gloriana, presented in its Czech premiere, Orff’s one-act operas Die Kluge and Der Mond, and Weinberger’s Schwanda the Bagpiper. In 2026, he conducted the first-ever staging of Václav Trojan’s opera Carousel on the stage of the National Theatre, the leading Czech opera house.

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F. X. Šalda Theatre, Liberec

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Since 2023, Zbyněk Müller has served as Music Director of the F. X. Šalda Theatre in Liberec.

His productions in Liberec include:

• G. Verdi: Nabucco

• B. Smetana: The Kiss

• P. I. Tchaikovsky: Eugene Onegin

• E. F. Burian: Maryša

• G. Puccini: Tosca

• A. Dvořák: The Spectre’s Bride – the first-ever staged production

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Further Operatic Engagements

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Müller has also collaborated with the National Moravian-Silesian Theatre in Ostrava, where he conducted Giordano’s operas Fedora and Andrea Chénier, and with the State Theatre Košice, where he conducted Smetana’s The Bartered Bride.

His international guest engagements include the Teatro Real in Madrid, where he conducted Janáček’s Fate, and the Deutsche Oper am Rhein Düsseldorf-Duisburg, where he conducted Mozart’s Don Giovanni.

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Teaching

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From October 2019 to 2022, Zbyněk Müller taught conducting at the Department of Conducting, Faculty of Music, Academy of Performing Arts in Prague.

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