Conductor and pianist Vahan Mardirossian is of Armenian origin, and since 1993 he has been living in Paris, where he graduated from the conservatoire. For several years, he has been the chief conductor of the Orchestre de Caen in France and the music director of the National Chamber Orchestra of Armenia. Since the 2019/2020 season he has held the post of chief conductor of the City Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong and from January 2020 the post of music director of the Orchestre Royal de Chambre de Wallonie. He makes regular guest appearances with a number of European and Asian orchestras, including the Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire, the Armenian National Philharmonic Orchestra, the Prague Philharmonia, the Lebanese Philharmonic Orchestra, the Toulon Opera Orchestra, the NHK Symphony Orchestra, and the Japan Philharmonic Orchestra. Mardirossian has performed as a pianist on a number of esteemed concert stages, including New York’s Carnegie Hall, and he has collaborated with the world’s leading conductors, including Kurt Masur and Paavo Järvi. His discography covers a wide range of styles from the Baroque to music of the 20th century. He was awarded a prestigious Diapason d’Or for his album of piano music by Franz Schubert.

The Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra is one of the most important contemporary Czech orchestras. From the 2022/2023 season, the Czech conductor Petr Popelka holds the position of the orchestra’s chief conductor and artistic director. Robert Jindra has been the principal guest conductor for the second year.

In the 2023/24 concert season, the PRSO will welcome a number of notable names, which include the outstanding violinists Gidon Kremer, Christian Tetzlaff and the rising star María Dueñas. The pianists Brad Mehldau, Eldar Djangirov and Marianna Shirinyan, the harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani, and the conductors Omer Meir Wellber, Ilan Volkov and Eva Ollikainen have also accepted the invitation. A unique project presents a concert performance of the second act of Wagner’s opera Tristan and Isolde, which was preceded by a performance of the first act last season. The lead roles will be played by Michael Weinius and Elisabeth Teige. Among the domestic performers, the PRSO will present for example the mezzo-soprano Štěpánka Pučálková and the conductors Petr Altrichter and Alena Jelínková.

Over the past few years, the orchestra has collaborated with leading Czech and international conductors such as Tomáš Netopil, Petr Altrichter, Jakub Hrůša, Cornelius Meister, Alexander Liebreich, Stephan Asbury, Ion Marin, Michał Nesterowicz, Anu Tali and Wayne Marshall.

The soloists accompanied by the PRSO included the pianist Krystian Zimerman, the violinists Pierre Amoyal, Frank Peter Zimmermann and Patricia Kopatchinskaja, the cellists Gautier Capuçon, Daniel Müller-Schott, István Várdai and Steven Isserlis, the trombonist Christian Lindberg, as well as the jazzman Avishai Cohen. The singers included Renée Fleming, Elīna Garanča, José Cura, Juan Diego Flórez, Dmitri Hvorostovsky and Jonas Kaufmann. Among the local artists, one should certainly not omit Lukáš Vondráček, Ivo Kahánek, Jan Bartoš, Josef Špaček, Jan Mráček, Tomáš Jamník, Adam Plachetka, Simona Šaturová, Kateřina Kněžíková, Petr Nekoranec and Vilém Veverka. The orchestra commissions and regularly performs works by leading contemporary Czech composers such as Miroslav Srnka, Ondřej Adámek, Pavel Zemek Novák, Jan Ryant Dřízal, Šimon Voseček and Jana Vöröšová.

The recording activity of the PRSO is quite extensive as well. Let us recall the recording released by Hyperion with the harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani and the conductor Alexander Liebreich with music by Viktor Kalabis, Hans Krása and Bohuslav Martinů. The album was selected as Editor’s Choice by Gramophone magazine. The album The Mystery of Time with the music of Miloslav Kabeláč is a unique work, which complements the successful set of Kabeláč’s symphonies, released by Supraphon in 2016. The Mystery of Time received the Anděl 2022 Award, similarly as Štěpánka Balcarová’s album Happiness, which features six poems by the Polish author Julian Tuwim and is also a live recording of a joint concert with the PRSO.

The PRSO offers its audience concerts as part of subscription cycles in the Dvořák Hall of the Rudolfinum or the Betlehem Chapel as well as individually in DOX+ or in Studio 1 of Czech Radio. It is a regular guest at prominent festivals such as the Prague Spring International Music Festival, the Dvořák Prague International Music Festival, Smetana’s Litomyšl, the Leoš Janáček International Music Festival and the International Music Festival Český Krumlov. The PRSO regularly performs on international stages in Europe and Japan.

source: Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra

Ryan Martin Bradshaw began playing the piano at the age of seven and he began performing with the Russian Philharmonic under Vladimir Spivakov from the age of eight. He is the youngest soloist in residence at Slovak Radio. He is a laureate from a large number of piano competitions: he has received the 1st prize at the Golden Nutcracker Competition in Moscow, the EMCY Prize, the Tchaikovsky Conservatory Prize, the 1st prize at the Krainev Competition in Moscow, the 1st prize at the Chopin Piano Competition in Poland, the 2nd prize at the International Piano Competition in Aarhus, the Carl Nielsen Prize and the audience prize at Enschede, the 2nd prize for the youngest participants at the International Piano Competition for Young Musicians in the Netherlands, the 2nd prize at the Mihaela Ursuleasa Competition in Bucharest, the 3rd prize and the prize for the youngest ever finalist at the Franz Liszt Piano Competition in Weimar, the Grand Prix and the 1st prize at the International Vienna Open, the 1st prize at the Peter Toperczer International Piano Competition in Košice, the 1st prize at the Young Virtuosi competition in Zagreb, the 1st prize at the Young Virtuosi competition in Sofia, the 1st prize at the Grand Prize Virtuoso competition in Salzburg, the 1st prize at the Amadeus Mozartian competition in Brno and the 1st prize at the Bratislava Young Virtuosi competition.

Mark Anthony Lewin began playing the violin at the age of five. He studied under Tamara Prischepenko until the age of ten and has been working under the tutelage of Professor Bernhard Hartog at the Julius Stern Institute in Berlin since 2015. He has also participated at a number of master classes by Professor Dora Schwarzberg. He has regularly performed at music festivals such as Youth Classics 2015 (Switzerland), the 2015 Kastela Summer School (Croatia), the International Summer Academy in 2016 and 2019 (Austria) and the 2019 Chieti Classica (Italy). In 2018, he joined the International Academy for Talented Young Musicians in Germany. He regularly participates at international courses where he has worked with renowned musicians such as Michael Erxleben, Frithjof-Martin Grabner, Felix Korinth, the Ensemble Modern or Roeland Gehlen. In 2020, he became a member of the National Youth Orchestra of Germany (BJO). He has performed at many concerts and festivals as a soloist and in a duo with his brother Michael Lewin. These include the 27^th Brandenburg summer concerts, amongst others. He has been studying at the Carl Philippe Emanuel Bach Music School since 2017.

Ildikó Rozsonits was born in Budapest in 2006. At the age of four, she started playing the recorder and then began the piano one year later. She was accepted into the Liszt Academy for exceptional young talents in Budapest as a ten-year-old and became the youngest student at the school under the tutelage of Professor Gábor Eckhardt. She is a laureate from a number of prestigious international piano competitions: she received the 1st prize at the Carl Filtsch competition in Romania and she won the Ars Nova competition in Italy with the highest possible number of points in 2017. One year later, she came first in competitions in Essen and Ústí nad Labem. In 2019, she won the Béla Bartók competition in Graz, Austria. Last year, she received the 1st prize at the César Franck International Piano Competition in Brussels, at the Piano Talents competition in Milan and at the International Music Festival and Competition in Paris. In 2020, she also became the Hungarian winner of the Virtuosos V4+ television show. She was the absolute winner of the Franz Liszt Piano Competition in Spain in 2021.

Jan Schulmeister has been playing the piano since the age of five. In addition to studying in Eva Zonová’s class at the Arts Primary School in Kroměříž, he has also completed a number of master classes with leading teachers and artists both at home and abroad. He has received the most prestigious prizes from many piano competitions, including being the two-time winner of the National Arts Primary School competition, the two-time absolute winner of the Piano Talents competition in Milan and the recipient of the absolute winner’s title in the Amadeus and Beethoven’s Teplice competitions. He has also added victories at the César Franck Competition in Brussels and at the Estonian Odin International Music Competition. He became a finalist in the 2020 Concertino Praga competition and received the EMCY Prize. He performs with leading Czech orchestras under the batons of Tomáš Netopil, Dennis Russell Davies or Jiří Rožeň and he cooperates with the Wihan Quartet. He plays regular solo concerts at both Czech and international concert halls and he participates at international music festivals such as the Prague Spring, Dvořák Prague, Smetana’s Litomyšl, Svátky hudby or the South Bohemian Festival.

The Rudolfinum is one of the most important Neo-Renaissance edifices in the Czech Republic. In its conception as a multi-purpose cultural centre it was quite unique in Europe at the time of its construction. Based on a joint design by two outstanding Czech architects, Josef Zítek and Josef Schultz, a magnificent building was erected serving for concerts, as a gallery, and as a museum. The grand opening on 7 February 1885 was attended by Crown Prince Rudolph of Austria, in whose honour the structure was named. In 1896 the very first concert of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra took place in the Rudolfinum's main concert hall, under the baton of the composer Antonín Dvořák whose name was later bestowed on the hall.