Robert Stankovsky was born in Bratislava in 1964. He graduated from the Conservatory in his home town, top of his class in piano and conducting, and subsequently gained the Rector’s Prize from the University of Music and Dramatic Arts. Stankovsky then won a scholarship to further his musical education in Paris where he attended master courses under Gerard Devos. Within a short space of time he was also appointed to conduct the Chamber Opera in Bratislava, the State Philharmonic Orchestra in Košice and the Chamber Philharmonia in Pardubice.

Stankovsky has been chief conductor of the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra in Bratislava as well as a conductor of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, the Prague Symphony Orchestra and the Cologne Radio Orchestra. He has also been guest or touring conductor in the USA, Canada, Japan, South Korea, the former USSR, Germany, Holland, France, Austria, Portugal, Spain and Italy. In addition to his many conducting engagements, Stankovsky holds the post of lecturer at the Conservatory in Bratislava.

For Naxos, Robert Stankovsky has above all been the agile orchestral coordinator behind a number of the label’s well-received recordings of piano concertos by Chopin, Bach, Haydn, Mendelssohn and Alkan. On Marco Polo he has recorded lesserknown works by Smetana, Dvořák, Rubinstein, Miaskovsky and Mosonyi.