Zdenek Kosler

Zdeněk Košler earned recognition as a Czechoslovak conductor whose readings of Central European opera and symphonic repertoire stood out for their depth. He appeared with more than sixty ensembles across the globe and exerted a decisive artistic influence on musical life in Slovakia.

Born in 1928 to a household steeped in music, he grew up alongside a younger brother, Miroslav, who later distinguished himself in the same profession. His father, Vaclav Košler, served as a violist with the National Theater Orchestra of Prague, while his mother, Malvina Katzova, worked as a singer; together they introduced him to the violin and to vocal technique. As a youth he performed with the Kühn Children’s Chorus and completed his early schooling at the Vančur grammar school in Smíchov. Under the Nazi occupation the family observed an eight-o’clock curfew, spending each evening of the next three years singing choral repertoire in private. Jewish children were barred from classes, and in 1945 Košler was seized and interned in a concentration camp; once the SS learned of his ability at the piano they spared his life in exchange for nightly recitals. After liberation he returned to the grammar school, earned his diploma, and began accompanying and assisting both the Czech Choir and the Kühn Children’s Chorus.

In 1948 he joined the Prague National Theater as a répétiteur and simultaneously entered the Prague Academy of Musical Arts, where he studied conducting, composition, and piano under Karel Ančerl, Method Doležil, Robert Brock, and Václav Neumann. His first public appearance as a conductor came in 1951 when he led the Prague Symphony Orchestra at the Prague National Theater; he received his degree the following year. Four years later he took first prize at the Besançon International Competition. Between 1958 and 1963 he held posts with the Olomouc Opera, the Ostrava Opera, and the Prague Symphony Orchestra. Victory at the Dimitri Mitropoulos Competition in 1963 brought him a season’s engagement as Leonard Bernstein’s assistant, an association that broadened his international profile.

That visibility secured his appointment in 1965 as music director of the Komische Oper in Berlin, a position he retained for three seasons. He made his Japanese debut in 1969 and returned every year until the early 1990s. Leaving Berlin in 1971, he first appeared as a guest at the Slovak National Theatre in Bratislava and soon accepted a five-year directorship there. During the same period he also conducted the Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra, the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, and numerous groups throughout Canada, Europe, and East Asia. From 1980 to 1985 he served as artistic head of the Prague National Theater Opera, during which time he recorded Smetana’s The Bartered Bride, Dalibor, and Libuse as well as Strauss’s Tone Poems. Health concerns prompted his retirement from full-time work in 1992, though he continued to accept occasional engagements until his death in 1995. A volume of autobiographical essays, Poselství, appeared posthumously in 1996.