The programme will be announced after the results of the Concertino Praga selection round are determined in the latter half of May 2023.

In the Chamber Music category, young performers compete every two years, while soloists compete annually. The final round of the Concertino Praga competition has always promised to be a thrilling spectacle and a superb artistic experience. Who will be crowned the victor this year?

In 1966, Czechoslovak Radio launched Concertino Praga, an international radio competition for young musicians. The competition has become world-renowned, with laureates such as Dmitry Sitkovetsky, Václav Hudeček, Isabelle Faust, Julian Rachlin, Christian Tetzlaff, Lars Vogt, Zoltán Kocsis, Radek Baborák, Ivo Kahánek, and many others.

In 2020, the Academy of Classical Music, the organiser of Dvořák Prague, teamed up with Czech Radio to give contestants the opportunity to perform on the festival’s stage in front of a live audience and an international jury.

Who, then, can we look forward to seeing on the panel? For one, cellist Pablo Ferrández, who opened last year’s festival with great success. Also, Sarah Willis, a solo hornist from the Berlin Philharmonic, who is widely respected not only for her phenomenal skills, but also for successfully promoting classical music among young audiences. And then there is violinist and conductor Dmitry Sitkovetsky, the very first winner of this competition in 1966. Lastly, we have the outstanding pianist Roman Rabinovich. All of them will not only sit on the panel but also perform at Dvořák Prague, or lead master classes. Albena Danilova, a concertmaster from the Vienna Philharmonic, has also agreed to take part, with the Vienna Philharmonic’s performance expected to be a highlight of this year’s festival.

We are confident that this year will bring us fresh faces and new discoveries, who will go on to have fruitful artistic careers. The 2020 laureate is a shining example: last year, violinist Daniel Matejča won another big competition, the Eurovision Young Musicians contest, and then in 2022 he returned to the Dvořák Prague stage with his unforgettable performance of the Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto. Other finalists, such as Czech pianist Jan Schulmeister, Slovak Ryan Martin Bradshaw, and Hungarian Ildikó Rozsonits, have also achieved great success in both competitions and concert performances.

The Florestan Trio consists of three young musicians: Marie Helling (violin), Anna Meipariani (violoncello) and Clara Mandler (piano). All three won first prizes at the 7th year of the Carl Bechstein Piano Competition in Berlin. They subsequently joined forces and began playing as a piano trio. All the performers, each of whom has also been exceptionally successful as a soloist, are defined by the intensive expressiveness of their musical performance and their unreserved wish to “create music”. They received first place with the highest number of points ever in the chamber music with a piano category at the Jugend musiziert national competition in 2022. In the same year, the trio of young musicians received the Bertold Hummel Special Prize for the best performance of a modern classical piece at the Wespe competition in Schwerin. In addition, the trio also participated in the renowned 67th JM International Chamber Music Campus at the Weikersheim Château, Germany in September 2022 and received the Jeunesses Musicales Deutschland scholarship.

Jan Bostl studies the clarinet in Milan Polák’s class at the City of Prague Grammar School and Music School. He considers his greatest successes to include the first place at the International Clarinet Competition in Markneukirchen and two first prizes with the title of absolute winner at the Pardubické dechy competition organised by the Pardubice Conservatoire. He has performed with the Prague Symphony Orchestra three times as a soloist. Magdalena Koudelková graduated from the City of Prague Grammar School and Music School under the guidance of Hana Dvořáková and is now studying at the Music and Dance Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague under Professor František Malý. She considers her greatest successes to include the first place finish with the title of absolute winner at the Brno Piano Competition and the Beethoven’s Teplice Competition and the first place at the Competition of Conservatoires and Music Grammar Schools in Pardubice. She has performed in Ramallah, Bethlehem and Jerusalem. Duo Comenius was formed in 2020. It has performed in the Mirrored Chapel at Prague’s Clementinum, in the Bohuslav Martinů Hall at the Music and Dance Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague and at the château in Průhonice as a trio with the violoncellist Barbora Cipriánová.

Veronika Jaklová is the holder of an EMCY award and a scholarship holder from the Yamaha Music Foundation and the Czech Music Fund. She has performed, for example, at the Dvořák Prague Festival, the Orbetello Piano Festival in Italy and at concerts in Luxemburg or Germany. Kristian Mráček is the holder of many prizes from international competitions. He has performed with well-known violinists, such as Václav Hudeček, Pavel Šporcl etc. He has had multiple opportunities to perform as a soloist with the Czechoslovak Chamber Orchestra in Prague, the Prague Conservatoire’s String Orchestra and the Hradec Králové Philharmonic. Kristian and Veronika are both studying at the Prague Conservatoire and the Music and Dance Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. They jointly won first place in the violin category of the Bohuslav Martinů Foundation Competition in 2022. As a trio with the violoncellist Dominik Velký, they won their category in the Ohrid Pearls Competition in North Macedonia in 2022 and received the Grand Prix in the finale. In addition to their financial prize, they were also invited to the Ohrid Summer festival. The won 2nd place at the Bohuslav Martinů Foundation Competition in 2022.

The Matejča–Schulmeister Duo was established on the basis of a meeting of the two young performers in the final round of solo category at the Concertino Praga competition in 2020. In addition to a friendship, this saw the genesis of the idea to cooperate together. Given the long-lasting pandemic situation, however, their initial plans had to be put on hold until a more favourable time. At present, the two performers play regular concerts and are thus now fulfilling their original resolution. Daniel is a student at the Prague Conservatoire and the Music and Dance Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague in the classes of František Souček and Ivan Štraus. Jan is studying at the P. J. Vejvanovský Conservatoire in Kroměříž in Martina Schulmeisterová’s class. They are both excellent solo performers with a series of prestigious awards to their names.

The Convent of St. Agnes in the 'Na Františku' neighbourhood of Prague's Old Town is considered the first Gothic structure not only in Prague but in all of Bohemia. It was founded by King Wenceslas I in 1233–34 at the instigation of his sister, the Přemyslid princess Agnes of Bohemia, for the Order of Saint Clare which Agnes introduced into Bohemia and of which she was the first abbess. The convent was preceded by a hospital. The 'Poor Clares' originated as an offshoot of the Order of St. Francis of Assisi, and the convent was at one time known as the Prague Assisi. Agnes was an outstanding figure in religious life of the thirteenth century. Besides this Clarist convent she also founded the only Czech religious order – the Hospital Order of the Knights of the Cross with the Red Star. She was canonized in 1989.