Born in Trencin, Czechoslovakia, Olver von Dohnanyi studied violin and composition and conducting at the Prague Academy for music under Professor Vaclav Neumann and at the University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna, under Professor Otmar Suitner. He has won distinctions in a number of competitions including the “Premio Respighi” in Sienna, the “Talich Competition of the Prague Spring” and the same award from Hungarian Television.
In the Czech Republic and Slovakia, he has held a number of distinguished operatic and orchestral posts: as Intendant/Artistic Director of the State Opera in Prague; Music Director of the Opera of the National Theatre, Prague; Artistic Director of the Moravian-Silesian National Theatre, Ostrava; Intendant/Artistic Director of the Slovak National Opera, Bratislava; Conductor-in-Chief of the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra and of the Slovak Sinfonietta. He has also enjoyed a close association with the Czech National Symphony Orchestra.
Outside the Czech Republic and Slovakia, his prestigious engagements include: for English National Opera, Mefistofele (Boito), Falstaff , The Merry Widow; for Opera North, Carmen, Hamlet, La Gioconda (Ponchielli), Prodaná nevěsta (The bartered Bride), Rusalka; for the Wexford Festival, Der widerspenstige Zähmung (Goetz); for the Bayerische Staatsoper, Romeo und Juliette, Cinderella (Prokofiev), John Neumeyer; for the Royal Danish Opera, Falstaff, Jenufa (Janacek); for the Teatro Colon, Die Zauberflöte; for the Oper Stuttgart, Norma and Evgeny Onegin; for the Teatro San Carlo, Alexander Nievsky and Romeo et Juliette (Prokofiev); for the Opera Zürich, Rusalka and Romeo et Juliette (Prokofiev). He has also conducted at Opernhaus Basel, Nationaltheater Mannheim, Staatstheater Karlsruhe, Staatstheater Kassel, Nationaltheater Weimar, in Japan and at the Edinburgh Festival.
He has worked extensively with orchestra worldwide: Tonkünstlerorchester Wien, The Czech Philharmonic, Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo, Sankt Petersburg Philharmonic, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Chicago Symphonietta, Hungarian State Philharmonic, Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra, Radio Symphony Orchestra Zagreb, Dublin Philharmonic Orchestra, Orquesta Sinfónica Portuguesa, English Chamber Orchestra, London Mozart Players, The State Philharmonic Orchestra Brno, Northern Philharmony Leeds, Radio Symphony Orchestra Lugano, I Solisti di Napoli, Radio Symphony Orchestra Saarbrücken, Radio Symphony Orchestra Basel, Orquesta Sinfónica de Tenerife, Orquesta Sinfónica de Mallorca, Orquesta Nacional do Porto, National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, Chamber Orchestra Amiens, BBC Belfast, BBC Glasgow Orchestra, Orquesta Filarmónica Buenos Aires.
Oliver von Dohnányi has conducted première performances of works by several Czech and Slovak composers (e.g. Petr Eben, Juraj Filas) and his recording of the opera Memento mori by Juraj Filas with the FOK Symphony Orchestra in Prague became a prize holder at the important television-festival in Salzburg. He has conducted and recorded the première of three of Marian Budos works and the world première of Golem.
He has recorded for Naxos Records, Marco Polo imprint, Supraphon, Panton, Verga and Opus labels.
He is particularly associated with the works of Czech and Slovak composers and has conducted Prodaná nevěsta (The bartered Bride) for the National Theatre, Prague, the Slovak National Theatre, Opera Ostrava, Opera North, the Baltimore Opera Company and Libuše for the Edinburgh Festival. Elsewhere, the works of Dvorak, Martinu, Janacek and Prokofiev feature highly in his regular repertoire.
Current season/future plans: Carmen and Norma for Opera North and in Ostrava, Cavalleria Rusticana and I Pagliacci in New Zealand, concerts with the Slovak Sinfonietta, with the Tonkünstlerorchester Wien, Rusalka in Dubai, with the Orchestra of the State Opera Prague.