Zdeněk Chalabala, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

Zdeněk Chalabala

Czech dirigent and musician

Date of Birth: 18-Apr-1899

Place of Birth: Uherské Hradiště, Zlín Region, Czech Republic

Date of Death: 04-Mar-1962

Profession: writer, conductor, pedagogue

Nationality: Czech Republic

Zodiac Sign: Aries

Zdenek Chalabala (18 April 1899 – 4 March 1962) was a Czech conductor.
He conducted orchestras in Prague, Ostrava, Moscow. Chalabala was born in Uherské Hradište.
He studied conducting at the Brno Conservatory with František Neumann, and after a few years gaining experience was appointed a conductor of the Brno Opera in 1926 alongside Bretislav Bakala; in 1932 conducted the premiere there of Flammen by Erwin Schulhoff.
He also conducted performances of operas by Borodin, Mussorgsky and Rimsky-Korsakov.In 1924 he founded the Slovácká filharmonie (Uherské Hradište).
He was chief opera conductor of the Slovak National Theatre, where he produced many Yugoslav and Russian operas.
He was also conductor in the National Theatre of Brno.
His students included Vítezslava Kaprálová. Chalabala was dismissed from the post at the end of the war and worked in Ostrava, Brno and Bratislava before returning to the Prague National Theatre as principal conductor in 1953, a position he held until his death.
He took the company to Moscow in 1956 which led to an engagement at the Bolshoi, where he conducted Leoš Janácek's Jenufa and gave the Moscow premiere of The Taming of the Shrew by Vissarion Shebalin.
He died in Prague.