Filip Urban (b. 1995) is one of the most distinctive figures of the young generation of Czech conductors. His artistic work encompasses both the symphonic and operatic repertoire, and he regularly collaborates with leading orchestras and opera houses in the Czech Republic and abroad.
From 2024 to 2026 he served as assistant to the chief conductor and guest conductors of the Janáček Philharmonic Ostrava, where he worked with a number of the world's leading conductors, among them Andrey Boreyko, Daniel Raiskin, Ingo Metzmacher and Lawrence Foster.
He is a laureate of the Felix Mendelssohn International Conducting Competition and the overall winner of the 1st Conducting Competition of the Karlovy Vary Symphony Orchestra. In 2024 he was the only Czech conductor selected to take part in the prestigious Nordic Masterclass led by the legendary Jorma Panula, which culminated in a performance with the Odense Symphony Orchestra in Denmark. In the same year he also appeared at the Talentinum festival of the Bohuslav Martinů Philharmonic in Zlín.
For his artistic achievements he received the Talent of the Year award of the City of Ostrava, and in 2026 he was presented with the Karviná Mayor's Award for an outstanding contribution to culture.
Opera forms a significant part of his artistic work. At the National Moravian-Silesian Theatre in Ostrava he regularly conducts the productions La traviata (Verdi), The Gambler (Prokofiev) and the ballet Peer Gynt (Grieg).
With the National Theatre Košice he has established a long-term collaboration through his musical preparation of the opera The Snow Queen (Banevič). He subsequently made his debut there with Tosca (Puccini), with Eliška Weissová in the title role, and in 2025 he conducted a gala concert of the Ministry of Culture of the Slovak Republic featuring the internationally renowned soloists Dmytro Popov and Elena Maximova.
He also collaborates regularly with the Moravian Theatre Olomouc, where he has conducted the operas La clemenza di Tito (Mozart), The Bartered Bride (Smetana) and La traviata (Verdi). At the National Theatre Brno he contributed as assistant conductor to the musical preparation of Don Carlos, Nabucco and The Magic Flute, and worked with Jakub Hrůša on the project From the House of the Dead / Glagolitic Mass by Leoš Janáček.
Alongside opera, he also devotes himself to interdisciplinary projects. In 2024, at the Rudolfinum in Prague, he prepared the production Jonathan Livingston Seagull in collaboration with the Czech Philharmonic, the DEKKADANCERS ensemble and the actors Jiří Lábus and Vilém Udatný; it was subsequently presented at the festivals Smetana's Litomyšl, Theatre World Brno and Colours of Ostrava.
He has worked with the Czech Philharmonic, the Odense Symphony Orchestra, the Moravian Philharmonic Olomouc, the Bohuslav Martinů Philharmonic, the Karlovy Vary Symphony Orchestra, the North Czech Philharmonic, Sinfonietta Dresden, Ensemble Courage Dresden and other Czech and international orchestras. Since 2022, he has been a member of the faculty at the Brno Conservatory, where he has also served as Chief Conductor of the Symphony Orchestra since 2025.
Filip Urban is a graduate of the Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Brno, where he studied conducting in the class of Prof. Jan Zbavitel. During his studies he completed an exchange at the Hochschule für Musik Carl Maria von Weber in Dresden under Prof. Ekkehard Klemm and an artistic residency in India. He has further developed his interpretative skills in masterclasses with Jorma Panula, Tomáš Hanus and Mark Stringer.
In the 2026/2027 season Filip Urban continues his collaboration with leading Czech and Slovak music institutions. At the National Moravian-Silesian Theatre he will prepare the ballet Giselle by Adolphe-Charles Adam and expand his repertoire with Verdi's Requiem, Eugen d'Albert's opera The Dead Eyes and Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker. He will also build on his existing collaboration with the National Theatre Košice. As part of the Janáček Brno Festival, he will conduct and prepare Bohuslav Martinů’s opera Divadlo za bránou. Together with the Czech Philharmonic and DEKKADANCERS he will appear in the project Má vlast (My Country) at Prague's Azyl78. The symphonic season is rounded off by a subscription concert of the Karlovy Vary Symphony Orchestra featuring works by Ravel, Rachmaninoff and Philip Glass.
