Michael Kroutil

He studied at Jaroslav Ježek Conservatory in Prague and the Prague Conservatory between 1999 and 2001. He started private lessons with then timpanist of the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Karl Mehling, in 2003 and a year later with the first timpanist of the orchestra, Mark Steful. In 2005-2007, he studied timpani and percussions at Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Leipzig and in 2011, he was enrolled at Zürcher Hochschule der Künste, where he studied with the first timpanist of the Berlin Philharmonic, Rainer Seegers.

He has played with top Czech and German orchestras including Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Leipziger Kammerorchester, Mendelssohn Kammerorchester Leipzig, Südwestdeutsche Philharmonie Konstanz, Thüringer Symphoniker, Westsächsisches Synphonieorchester, Deutsche Philharmonie, PKF – Prague Philharmonia, Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, National Theatre Chamber Orchestra and Pardubice Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra. He regularly collaborates with the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra and has performed with Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra Tokyo.

In 2006 and 2007, he participated in Gewandhausorchester’s recording project for EuroArts. He regularly teaches at masterclass courses and Japanese universities (Tokyo, Nagoya, Okinawa). He is the first timpanist of the Czech Philharmonic.

He mainly likes the pieces he is working on at the moment but naturally, he feels closest to the composers who had a natural sense and understanding for his instrument (timpani) in the orchestra and “could write music for it”. Such authors include Richard Strauss, Gustav Mahler, Dmitri Shostakovich, Igor Stravinsky and from among the Czech composers, he values most the original approach of Leoš Janáček and Josef Suk. He enjoys drinking tea (preferably Chinese) and eating good food. He is fascinated by Ancient China and Asia.