Walter Hofbauer

Born in 1994 in Jihlava, he started playing the trumpet at the age of eight. He has been one of the most significant talents of his generation since childhood. His first teacher was his father, renowned pedagogue Walter Hofbauer Sr. Even before joining the Prague Conservatory he won the Music School competition and the category Junior of the International Interpretative Competition for Wind Instruments in Brno. The biggest success of his childhood is the first prize and the laureate title at the Concertino Praga competition. After graduating at the Prague Conservatory under the guidance of Jiří Jaroněk, he was enrolled at the Faculty of Music of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague in 2015. He successfully completed his master's degree in 2021. During his studies, he excelled at several domestic and international competitions – the International Interpretative Competition for Wind Instruments in Brno, the Competition of Conservatories and Grammar Schools in the Czech Republic, the International Tribune of Young Performers New Talent, etc.

As the first trumpet player of the Prague Conservatory orchestra, he was invited by Jiří Bělohlávek to perform at the opening concert of the Prague Spring Festival. This concert led to further collaboration when they performed Haydn’s Concerto in E flat major together with the PKF – Prague Philharmonia. He also often performs as a soloist. He has worked with the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Pilsen Philharmonic, the South Bohemian Philharmonic, the Prague Symphony Orchestra FOK and the Czech Philharmonic under the baton of its Chief Conductor Semyon Bychkov. Accompanied by the Symphony Prague Orchestra, he performed at the Open-Air concert in Greven, Germany, after which acclaimed trumpeter Torsten Hell from Leipzig said about him: “The surprise of the evening was in the form of young trumpeter Walter Hofbauer. This is a ‘newcomer to the Czech trumpet heaven’. The Carnival of Venice he gave is a great piece for trumpeters, but there are only a few who are really good at it, and he is undoubtedly one of them.”

In 2014–2021, he was also a member of the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra and from the 2017/2018 season of the National Theatre Opera Orchestra. You can also see and hear him in the Czech Philharmonic, where he first worked as an academic, later as a guest and now as a member of the orchestra. Playing in an orchestra is his main specialization. He is therefore a highly sought-after symphonic but also studio player in orchestras throughout the Czech Republic and abroad.

He is also a successful chamber music player. In 2019, he won the Jeju International Brass&Percussion Competition in South Korea as the leader of Prague BRASStet. A year later, they recorded their debut album JOY together.

His latest successes include winning several awards at the Bohuslav Martinů Foundation Competition 2021 – the 1st place in the category of wind instruments (clarinet, flute, trumpet), the Bohuslav Martinů Award for the best interpretation of Martinů’s composition and the Přemysl Pražák Award for the most successful participant.