Jiří Bĕlohlávek was born in Prague in 1946. His father, a judge, was a keen pianist, an excellent sight-reader, who introduced Jiří to a wealth of classical music. Jiří started singing in a children’s choir already at the age of four, soon took up learning piano as well, and his clearly exceptional musicianship was further developed at the Prague Conservatory and Music Academy of Arts, where he first studied cello but quickly progressed to conducting, under the expert tutelage of Alois Klíma and Josef Veselka.
