Tomáš Netopil is a graduate of the P. J. Vejvanovský Conservatory in Kroměříž, where he studied the violin, the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague and the Royal College of Music in Stockholm. He later continued his studies at the American Academy of Conducting at Aspen and, having received the Aspen Conducting Prize in 2003 and 2004, has been a regular guest at the Aspen Music Festival and School since 2005. In 2002 Netopil won the main prize at the Sir Georg Solti Conductors’ Competition at the Alte Oper Frankfurt.
Between 2009 and 2012 Netopil served as principal conductor of the National Theatre Orchestra in Prague. Highlights of the 2012/13 season included new productions of Offenbach’s Les contes d’Hoffmann at the Opéra national de Paris, Die Zauberflöte at the Vlaamse Opera, Prokofiev’s L’Amour des trois oranges at the Nederlands Opera Amsterdam, and Halévy’s opera La Juive at the Sächsische Staatsoper Dresden.
As a symphonic conductor, Netopil has worked with numerous leading Czech and international orchestras, including the Czech Philharmonic, Staatskapelle Dresden, Berliner Philharmoniker, Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Orchestra Nazionale della RAI, Filarmonica Toscanini Parma, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, NHK Symphony Orchestra Tokyo, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Philharmonia London, Gewandhaus Orchester Leipzig, Tonhalle Orchester Zurich, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Filharmonica della Scala, Accademia di Santa Cecilia Roma, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, Orchestre National de Lyon, Beethoven Orchester Bonn and Wiener Symphoniker.
An accomplished operatic conductor, Netopil has appeared at the Salzburger Festspiele, the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich and other prestigious opera houses, including the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa, Teatro San Carlo in Naples, Teatro Regio in Turin, Teatro Comunale in Bologna, Teatro La Fenice in Venice and the National Opera in Tokyo.
At the beginning of the 2013/14 season Netopil was named the Music Director of the Aalto Theater und Philharmonie in Essen, Germany.