Teacher

The teaching dimension of Bělohlávek’s professional career started to gain importance in the late-1980s. He tried working with musical youth on a larger scale already in 1987 within the International Youth Philharmonic project, in which he rehearsed and conducted a concert tour of a one-hundred-and-twenty-member orchestra consisting of students from conservatoires and academies from six socialist states. The educational aspect of his conducting became even more prominent after the founding of the PKF – Prague Philharmonia, which consisted of young instrumentalists of about twenty years of age.

An Academic Teacher

Bělohlávek’s first institutionally anchored teaching position was between 1990 and 1995 when he was Tomáš Hanus’ conducting teacher at the Janáček Academy in Brno. Bělohlávek became, on Hanus’ request, an external teacher at the academy. Due to the minimal number of students, his teaching was usually in the form of the two of them discussing scores at the piano. “I felt that he was forming me in his image, that he was not imposing his gestures on me. He tried to pass on some fundamental technique but in such a way that expressed his great respect for the student’s personality. He tried to discover the way that would work the best for me instead of forcing me into something. I have never experienced such respect from anyone else.” [ 3 ]

Bělohlávek had a much larger number of students later at the Academy for Performing Arts in Prague. He started his teaching position there in 1995 and two years later he was appointed professor by president Václav Havel (1997). Together with his colleagues František Vajnar, Josef Kuchinka, Radomil Eliška, Jiří Chvála and Tomáš Koutník, Bělohlávek helped develop the department of conducting. During his era, students had the opportunity to conduct a full-length concert on a regular basis which enabled them to get acquainted with the demands and trickiness of their profession. Bělohlávek saw in this possibility of real practice one of the most important points in the study process. He always emphasised how important it was for an artist to have the opportunity at every stage of his or her development – especially during or shortly after the study years – to apply acquired skills while solving and tackling real tasks. It is therefore understandable that when the department lost the privilege of such – financially demanding but indispensable – concerts and Bělohlávek’s efforts to renew them failed, he first limited and in 2009 ended his engagement at the Academy.

As a teacher, Bělohlávek believed in an open relationship with students. He was aware of the fact that such a relationship bears in itself mutual influence in which both sides give and get at the same time. In addition to lessons and sharing practical know-how, he invited his students to rehearsals of Prague-based orchestras, he had discussions about technical and personal problems connected to the profession, and shared his conducting experience with his students. And he inspired them by his work and personality.

The success of Bělohlávek’s teaching activities is shown by how many of his students are conductors of Czech and foreign ensembles today. The six most successful so far are these: Jakub Hrůša, the chief conductor of the Bamberger Symphoniker and the principal guest conductor of the Czech Philharmonic, with whom Bělohlávek had a very friendly relationship; Tomáš Hanus, Bělohlávek’s first student and friend, the chief conductor of the Welsh National Opera in Cardiff; Tomáš Netopil, the chief conductor of the Aalto-Theater opera orchestra in Essen and the principal guest conductor of the Czech Philharmonic; Zbyněk Müller, until recently the chief conductor of the State Philharmonic in Košice and a conductor at the National Theatre in Prague; Marko Ivanović, the music director of the Opera of the National Theatre Brno; and Ondřej Vrabec, who in addition to his position of a French horn player in the Czech Philharmonic was also the assistant conductor of the orchestra during Bělohlávek’s era. These artists are a great asset to Czech music, both now and in the future.

Guide and mentor. Inspirator and initiator

Bělohlávek’s educational activities were not limited to conducting only. Everyone who had the opportunity to collaborate with him during his or her “apprentice” years will testify to the fact that he would not hesitate to help anyone in whom he felt keen interest in music grow artistically – by providing an opportunity, recommendation, advice, or long-term mentoring, by directing them to a suitable teacher or ensemble. Many soloists, first members of the PKF – Prague Philharmonia and students who took part in the student projects could speak about it in length.

Bělohlávek was the initiator, co-initiator and an enthusiastic participant of many projects that went in line with his idea of providing musicians with opportunities to grow. Student orchestras and various instrumental and singing competitions such as Zahraj si s Českou filharmonií (Play with the Czech Philharmonic) were a good form in which this idea could be applied on a large number of young musicians.

Bělohlávek obviously could not focus intensively on each individual young student, but these activities had a different dimension – they motivated the young musicians to give their best and they were a source of impulses and inspiration for further development. One of these projects was the orchestra consisting of students of the Prague Conservatoire with which Bělohlávek and his colleagues studied and performed Smetana’s Má vlast at the opening concert of the Prague Spring Festival in May 2011 marking the bicentennial of the Conservatoire. He also initiated a joint project of the Czech Philharmonic and the Association of Elementary Art Schools, in which, on a yearly basis starting in the 2013/2014 season, selected elementary art schools students and selected members of the Czech Philharmonic join together to perform a public concert. Bělohlávek took part in the first three years and together with Ladislav Cigler they performed Smetana’s Šárka, Dvořák’s Symphony No.8 and Glinka’s Overture to Ruslan and Ludmila.

The life of Jiří Bělohlávek as seen by Jan Špáta

A documentary film of the Genus cycle
Made in 1996
Script writer, director and cameraman: Jan Špáta