The composer, conductor and violinist Ondrej Kukal is now considered to be one of the most outstanding artistic personalities of his generation. He was brought up in a family of musicians, at the age of five he began to play the violin. He graduated from the Prague Conservatory and Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, where he was a student of Josef Vlach (violin) and Jindrich Feld (composition). Already during the studies Kukal was conductor of the Prague Student Orchestra, in years 1985 - 1995 he played as a member of the New Vlach Quartet. The concert and recording activities of the ensemble were the main source of inspiration for his 1st String Quartet op. 9, which was awarded at the composer' s competition Generation in 1989. After completing his studies he worked as principal conductor of the South Bohemian Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra in Czech Budejovice. In 1993 he became conductor of the Czech Chamber Orchestra, (founded in 1946 by Vaclav Talich). Since 1996 he has become the permanent conductor of the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, and in the same year he took the place of the concert master with the Prague Chamber Orchestra, with whom he has performed abroad at concerts in New York Lincoln Center, Teatro Colón in Argentina, in the Vienna Musikverein a. o. As a conductor is often invited to work together with leading Czech orchestras (Prague Symphony Orchestra, Brno Philharmonic Orchestra, Janacek Philharmonic Orchestra). In 1998 he performed as a guest with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, where he managed to make a public recording of Czech repertoire. He was invited to the season 1998-99 to conduct two concerts of the subscription cycle of the Czech Philharmonic.
From the 2002/03 season, he was appointed the chief conductor Philharmonic Orchestra Hradec Kralove. He is a frequent guest of other leading Czech orchestras - Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Prague Symphony Orchestra. Prague Symphony Orchestra, State Philharmonic Brno, etc. is also a guest at the BBC Symphony Orchestra.
Most of Kukal's compositional output is recorded by the Czech Radio, many of his compositions are available on CDs. His String Quartet No. 1 op. 9 was awarded in 1989 at the young composer's competition Generace, its composition Clarinettino-Concertino for Clarinet and Strings won the prize 'Cena Classic' in 1994. In 1999 he received a scholarship from the Bavarian government to stay for half a year creative in Bamberg, Germany, where he finished his 1st symphony which was premiered in 2000 at the International festival of student orchestras in Berlin. He regularly works with the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, in May 2006, he was given the opportunity to conduct the opening concert of the Prague Spring Festival (Smetana's cycle of symphonic poems My Country). Many of his works has been put on CDs, some of them has been released in printed edition (eg. Clarinettino by the publishing house Editio Bärenreiter Praha), the same company has also released the title "Mad Soldier' s Song" for baritone and orchestra to a text of Jakub Deml, op. 19, 2004, which received its first performance at the festival Prague Premieres 2006. Clarinettino's premiere was at the Young Stage Festival 1994, the same year he won the prestigious award Cena classic at home. Clarinettino was also selected as a mandatory piece of competition for the 60th edition of the International Performers' Competition of the Prague Spring Festival in 2008.