Jiří Kout

[1][2][3] Coming from the eastern surroundings of Prague, Kout experienced the Soviet influence early on when he worked as a conductor in Plzeň at the Divadlo Josefa Kajetána Tyla and was banned from performing there for four years.

In 1977, he took advantage of a business trip to the West to leave the Czech Republic permanently.

[4] Kout's career began in 1976 with a position at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein (in Düsseldorf and Duisburg).After that he became General Music Director at Saarbrücken Opera House, where he conducted Wagner´s Ring cycle (1996-1990).

At the Deutsche Oper Berlin and the Leipzig Opera he spontaneously stood in for ailing colleagues and thereby obtained further engagements.

[6] From 2006 to 2013, Kout headed the Symfonický orchestr hlavního města Prahy FOK.