Walter Hofbauer

Walter Hofbauer was born in 1994 in Jihlava and started playing the trumpet at the age of eight. Since childhood, he has been among the most outstanding talents of his generation. In the years 2014–2021, he was also a permanent member of the Czech Radio Symphony Orchestra and from the 2017/2018 season of the National Theater Opera Orchestra. You can also see and hear him at the Czech Philharmonic, where he first worked as an academician, later as a guest and now as a member of the orchestra. Playing in an orchestra is his main specialty. He is a highly sought-after symphonic and studio player in orchestras throughout the Czech Republic and abroad. Walter currently also teaches at the Prague Conservatory.

Walter Hofbauer was born in 1994 in Jihlava and started playing the trumpet at the age of eight. Since childhood, he has been among the most outstanding talents of his generation. Even before entering the Prague Conservatory, under the guidance of his father, the renowned pedagogue Walter Hofbauer, he won the Elementary School of Arts competition, in the Junior category he also won the International Interpretation Competition for brass instruments in Brno and took part in the Concertino Praga competition for the first time, which he won as laureate a few years later. His latest success is winning several prizes in the Bohuslav Martinů Foundation Competition 2021, namely 1st place in the category of wind instruments (clarinet, flute, trumpet), the Bohuslav Martinů Prize for the best interpretation of this author's composition and the Přemysl Pražák Prize for the most successful participant in the competition.

After graduating from the Prague Conservatory with Jiří Jaroňek, he also studied at the Faculty of Music of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague from 2015, where he successfully completed his master's degree in 2021. During his studies, he excelled at a number of domestic and international competitions – Concertino Praga, International Wind Instrument Interpretation Competition in Brno, Competition Show of Conservatories and Gymnasiums of the Czech Republic, International Tribune of New Talent Young Performers, etc. As a member of the Prague Conservatory orchestra and 1st trumpeter, he was invited by Jiří Bělohlávek to perform as a guest at the opening concert of the Prague Spring, which led to further cooperation, when together with the PKF – Prague Philharmonia presented Haydn's Concerto in E flat major. As a soloist, he also performed with, for example, the Czech Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Pilsen Philharmonic, the South Bohemian Philharmonic, the Symphony Orchestra hl. Prague FOK, or the Czech Philharmonic under the baton of its chief conductor Semjon Byčkov. Accompanied by the Symphony Prague, he performed at an Open-Air concert in Greven, Germany, after which the renowned trumpeter Torsten Hell from Leipzig declared about him: "The surprise of the evening was in the form of the young trumpeter Walter Hofbauer. This is a 'newcomer in the Czech trumpet sky'. The Carnival of Venice he performed is a bravura piece for a trumpeter, but there are only a few who are really good at it, and he is undoubtedly one of them.'

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

But he also devotes himself to chamber music. With the brass quintet Prague BRASStet, he won the Jeju International Brass&Percussion Competition in South Korea in 2019. A year later, they recorded their debut album JOY together.

Walter currently also teaches at the Prague Conservatory.