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Charles Olivieri-Munroe (1969)

Chief Conductor of the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra Bratislava, and the North Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Canadian conductor Charles Olivieri-Munroe has at the age of 33 accumulated a unique wealth of experience on the orchestral podium. During the early 1990’s as a conducting student in Czechoslovakia he immersed himself in the country and its music, absorbing the musical tradition of Central Europe. Ten years later at a ceremony held in Prague’s historic city hall he was awarded 1st Prize in the prestigious 2000 Prague Spring International Music Festival Conducting Competition launching an international career.

After graduating in piano from the Royal Conservatory of Music and the University of Toronto, Olivieri-Munroe won three Canadian scholarships to study conducting at the Janacek Academy of Music in Brno, Czechoslovakia where he graduated in 1994 from the class of Otakar Trhlik. He was also a pupil of Jiri Belohlavek and Rudolf Baumgartner, and spent two summers at L’Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena, where he received the ‘Diploma di Merito’. His mentors included Juri Temirkanov, Ilija Musin, and Myung-Whun Chung.

Olivieri-Munroe followed his studies by distinguishing himself in several international conducting competitions. His first success came in 1996 when he won 1st Prize in the Dinu Niculescu Competition in Rumania. In 1999 he was a laureate of three competitions: the Antonio Pedrotti Competition in Italy; the Lovro Von Matacic Competition in Zagreb; and the Gregorz Fitelberg Competition in Katowice, Poland. He also won the 3rd Prize at the Nicolai Malko Competition in Copenhagen. Finally he became the 1st Prize winner at the 2000 Prague Spring International Music Festival Conducting Competition where he also won the Supraphon, City of Prague and Czech Radio prizes. He has been recognized by the Canada Arts Council, which awarded him the $20,000 career grant in 1997.

As a guest conductor Olivieri-Munroe has worked with such orchestras as:

the Deutches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, St. Petersburg Philharmonic, Danish Radio Symphony, Vienna Tonkünstler Orchestra, Budapest Symphony, Prague Philharmonia, Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, Lisbon Metropolitan Orchestra, Royal Brussels Philharmonic, the New Japan Philharmonic, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Sudwestdeutche Philharmonie, and the Northern Israel Symphony in Haifa. At present he also holds the position of Principal Guest Conductor with the Janacek Philharmonic Orchestra and has appeared with the principal orchestras of Istanbul, Ankara, Bucharest, Zagreb, Belgrade, Maastricht, Seoul and other cities.

In 2001 the young Canadian made his Berlin opera debut conducting a revival production of Verdi’s ‘Falstaff’ at the Komische Oper Berlin. This was immediately followed by debut performances at Il Teatro Fenice in Venice. From 1992-94 he was Permanent Conductor with the Brno Chamber Opera where he led such diverse productions from Handel’s “Acis and Galatea” to the Czech composer Ilya Hurnik’s “Diogenes”. During those years he also held the position of Permanent Conductor with the Brno Philharmonic (1995-97), and the Karlsbad Symphony (1993-95).