Tomáš Hanus was born in Brno and studied at Janáček’s Academy of Performing Arts with his lifelong mentor Jiří Bělohlávek. Tomáš Hanus came to prominence during the Conductors’ International Competition in Katowice in 1999. He is now recognised as one of the Czech Republic’s most exciting and important conductors.

Since autumn 2016, Tomáš Hanus has been the music director of the Welsh National Opera in Cardiff. His first concert in that post, in October 2016, received a five-star rating from the critic of The Guardian who noted: “In this performance of Mahler’s Second Symphony, there was indeed chemistry between Hanus and his forces, and it could hardly augured better… Hanus used the acoustics of St David’s Hall to stunning effect throughout and, in the momentous orchestral coda, set the seal on a memorable night.” The same season saw him conducting the prestigious Cardiff Singer of the Worlds competition. Since then, Tomáš Hanus has directed several notably critically acclaimed WNO opera productions (Der Rosenkavalier, Il barbiere di siviglia, Jenůfa, Carmen, La Cenerentola, The Cunning Little Vixen, Khovanshchina, War and Peace, Brundibár), and the operetta, Die Fledermaus. The company’s production of Janáček’s From the House of the Dead, stage-directed by David Pountney, was conducted by Hanus during a visit to his native city, during the 2018 edition of the Janáček Brno Festival, where he was presented with a Leoš Janáček memorial medal as recognition as an outstanding performer promoting Janáček’s music. Together with WNO Hanus returned to Brno in November 2022, this time with Janáček’s The Makropulos Affair, stage-directed by Olivia Fuchs.

Since his October 2017 triumphant debut at the Vienna State Opera (Rusalka), Tomáš Hanus has pursued his conducting commitments there on a regular basis (Eugene Onegin, Hänsel und Gretel, Jenůfa), apart from also regularly conducting new productions at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich (where he debuted in 2009, with Jenůfa). Munich 2014 production of the Markopulos Affair used his critical edition of the Bärenreiter score. He repeatedly returned to Opéra National de Paris (where he debuted in 2007, with The Makropulos Affair). June 2023 saw his debut at Milan’s Teatro alla Scala, with a new production of Rusalka. Other opera houses with which he has been associated include the Grand Théâtre de Genève, the Royal Danish Opera in Copenhagen, Madrid’s Teatro Real, Opéra National de Lyon, National Theatre Tokyo and others. In 2001 he made his debut at the National Theatre in Prague, with Smetana’s The Devil’s Wall, stage-directed by David Pountney, and in 2008 he directed that company’s new production of The Makropulos Affair, stage-directed by Christopher Alden. Between 2007 and 2009, he was the music director of the National Theatre Brno.

As a part of his tenure at the WNO Orchestra, Tomáš Hanus also engages his forces in a busy schedule of concert appearances across the United Kingdom. Other orchestras he has worked with include the London Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Halle Orchestra, the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Dresden Staatskapelle, SWR Finfonieorchester Baden-Baden, MDR Leipzig, Stuttgart Opera Orchestra, Bremen Philharmonic, the Ensemble Intercontemporain, Camerata Salzburg, the Czech Philharmonic, the Brno Philharmonic, the PKF – Prague Philharmonia (with which he made his Prague Spring debut in 1996), or the Prague Symphony Orchestra (with which he made a recording of Viktor Ullmann’s symphonies) and the Festival Orchestra at the Mostly Mozart Festival New York, among others. In 2023 Tomáš Hanus presented Smetana’s Má vlast at the Prague Spring Opening Concert. The performance received rave reviews which applauded also to WNO Orchestra as a first opera orchestra to have ever opened the festival.

Tomáš has made several recordings with both the Prague Philharmonia and the State Philharmonic Orchestra Brno, and also records for Czech Radio. More recently, he has recorded the Viktor Ullmann symphonies with the Prague Symphony Orchestra FOK and has collaborated with outstanding Czech soloists for Lotos Records.