A good recording reveals a great deal about a soloist, but only a live performance can tell us everything. Therefore, the winner of the Concertino Praga competition will be decided by a live performance at the Rudolfinum. Only the immediacy of live performances with the accompaniment of a reliable orchestra and the presence of an attentive audience can show all that his hidden within the finalists. Their strengths will be fully revealed, and there is no chance to go back and fix mistakes. The combination of a friendly environment with healthy competition gives Concertino Praga a special atmosphere.

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

One of the most prominent Czech conductors of his generation, Marek Prášil is a Conductor of the National Moravian-Silesian Theatre and made his debut at the Prague Spring Festival in 2022. In recent years, he has enjoyed growing success on international stages.

He studied conducting and clarinet at the Janáček Conservatoire and earned two master’s degrees, first in clarinet at the Faculty of Fine Arts of Ostrava University (2012), then at Brno’s Janáček Academy of Performing Arts in orchestral conducting (2017) under the internationally renowned conductor Tomáš Hanus. In 2015 he was awarded a Bayreuther Festspiele Scholarship.

From 2020 to ’23, Marek Prášil was the principal guest conductor of the South Bohemia Philharmonic. He has worked in collaboration with most Czech and Slovak orchestras, including the Prague Philharmonia, the Janáček Philharmonic in Ostrava, the Pilsen Philharmonic, the Brno Philharmonic, the Moravian Philharmonic in Olomouc, the Bohuslav Martinů Philharmonic in Zlín, the Czech Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra in Pardubice, the North Bohemia Philharmonic in Teplice, the State Philharmonic in Košice, and the Slovak Sinfonietta. He made his international debut in Switzerland with the Biel Solothurn Symphony Orchestra. Since 2020, he has collaborated regularly with the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra, including a performance of Dvořák’s Te Deum and the Lithuanian premiere of Janáček’s Sinfonietta. In 2022 he made his debut with the Silesian Philharmonic in Katowice and in 2023 with the Wrocław Philharmonic at the newly built National Forum of Music in Wrocław. An important milestone was his debut at the 2022 Prague Spring International Music Festival, which was received favourably by the critics. He has also guest conducted at such international music festivals as Smetana’s Litomyšl, the Leoš Janáček International Music Festival, the Peter Dvorský International Music Festival, the Saint Wenceslas Music Festival, the South Bohemian Intermezzi, Talentinum Zlín, and Złota Lira in Poland.

Marek Prášil is engaged at the National Moravian-Silesian Theatre, conducting performances including Smetana’s operas The Brandenburgers in Bohemia and The Devil’s Wall, Donizetti’s Maria Stuart, Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake, Martinů’s ballet The Strangler, Strauss’s operetta Night in Venice, Lloyd Webber’s musicals Jesus Christ Superstar, Evita, and Sunset Boulevard, Bernstein’s West Side Story, Lévay’s Rebecca, and much more. Among the most successful productions that he has rehearsed and conducted have been the ballet Carmina Burana and the musicals Sweeney Todd, Cats, Oliver, and Edith and Marlene, the latter having been recorded in 2022 by Czech Television.

Marek Prášil has guest conducted at the State Theatre in Košice (Bellini’s La sonnambula) and at the Silesian Theatre in Opava (Verdi’s La traviata and Kálmán’s Countess Maritza). He has often taken part as an assistant conductor in opera productions abroad: the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich (Janáček’s Makropulos Affair, 2014 and Smetana’s Bartered Bride, 2018), the Welsh National Opera in Cardiff (Strauss’s Rosenkavalier, 2017), the Opéra National de Paris (Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta, 2019), and the National Theatre in Prague (Don Buoso, Gianni Schicchi, 2023). In July 2015 he appeared with the musical troupe of the National Moravian-Silesian Theatre at the Daegu International Music Festival in South Korea. There, the production of The Phantom of London won the festival’s main prize.

From 2007 to 2013, Marek Prášil was the conductor of the Májovák Symphonic Band, winning many awards at competitions and festivals at home and abroad (including two for the best conducting performance at international competitions in Ostrava and in Rybnik, Poland) and toured France, Italy, Austria, Norway, and Sicily. At his June 2013 farewell performance with the ensemble, he gave the Czech premiere of a complete band transcription of the cantata Carmina Burana in collaboration with the National Moravian-Silesian opera chorus and the Permoník Choral Studio.

Marek Prášil has made recordings on the German recording label Halter with the Moravian Wind Band (formerly the Central Band of the Interior Ministry of the Czech Republic) and with the Thalia Award winner Hana Fialová, and with the orchestra of the operetta/musical ensemble of the National Moravian-Silesian Theatre, he made the first professional recording in that ensemble’s history: the CD Hana/Edith with Edith Piaf’s most famous chansons. In 2018 he made a CD recording of Martin Chodúr’s Hallelujah with the Janáček Philharmonic in Ostrava, and in 2019 he recorded part of the musical Rebecca for Czech Radio. His most recent projects have been the release of a multiple CD “Covid Edition” with live recordings of concerts of the South Bohemian Philharmonic and a recording of the musical The Last Five Years by Jason Robert Brown for the National Moravian-Silesian Theatre.

Nora Lubbadová (14, Prague) has been playing the piano under J. Šnederflerová at the Olešská Arts Primary School since the age of four. She has participated in a number of competitions and been named the absolute winner of the Pro Bohemia, Steinway and Virtuosi per musica di pianoforte competitions. She first played with an orchestra at the age of seven and subsequently played with the Moscow Philharmonic in the final of the Nutcracker competition at the age of eleven. She was one of the faces in the film Talent and Czech Television and Television Nova have filmed numerous reports with her. During the period of the Covid pandemic, she won many competitions that were held online and received several prizes for interpretation. She won the 1st prize in the piano concerto category, the prize for the best performance of Chopin and the Grand Prix at a competition in Hong Kong. She has received the Zlatý oříšek award and has worked under the famed virtuoso Ivo Kahánek at the MenArt Foundation. Last year, she won the international Globe competition in the Netherlands and the national round with a string trio, including the prize for excellent interpretation. She has performed at the Prague Spring, Smetana’s Litomyšl, in Helsinki, Belgrade, Brussels and London. She performed Mozart’s piano concerto as a guest at the Svátky Festival. She is currently studying at the Prague Conservatory.

Anke Chen was born on New Year's Day 2011 and she commenced her music career at the age of four. Her performances of works by Scarlatti and Bach garnered the attention of listeners in just a few short months and quickly went viral on YouTube: videos of this wunderkind have garnered over five million views. She appeared on The Ellen Show twice and in Steve Harvey’s Little Big Shot in the same year, as well as on several Chinese television programs, including the Spring Festival Gala. She has already won the 3rd prize from the 15th International Volodymyr Krainev Competition for Young Pianists and the main prize from the 1st year of the Pacific Starts International Piano Competition. Anke is a resident artist with the Nanjing Philharmonic Orchestra. Since 2020, she has been studying at the Institute of Musical Personalities in Nanjing, China under Dr Mutian Cui. In recent years, she has also participated in masterclasses given by Ewa Kupiec, Piotr Paleczny, Antonio Pompa-Baldi and Colin Stone

Celina Höferlin was born in 2010 and has played the piano since she was five. In 2020, she became a student at the Pre-College Mozarteum, where she studied under Andreas Weber. Her successes include 1st place finishes in various international competitions, such as the International Feurich Competition for Piano (2019), the International Grotrian Piano Competition (2020), the International Mozart Piano Competition (2021) and the International Frederic Chopin Competition in Bacău, Romania (2021). She has had 2nd place finishes in the Steinway Piano Competition Hamburg (2017), the Piano Festival Clavis Bavaria (2020), the Young Euregio Piano Award online Edition (2021), the Bechstein Piano Competition Berlin (2022) and the International Hans-von-Bülow Competition Meiningen (2023). She has performed in prestigious concert halls throughout the world, including the Gläsner Saal, Bösendorfer Saal and the Ehrbar-Saal (all in Vienna), the Laeiszhalle (Hamburg), Steinway House (Munich), Carnegie Hall, (New York) and the Berliner Philharmoniker Chamber Hall.

Zoja Syguda was born in Poland in 2009 and she had her first violin lesson at the age of eight and a half. She has received a number of awards from renowned national and international competitions, the latest of which was the first prize at the International Georg Philipp Telemann Violin Competition and also the first prize from the Dr Josef Micka International Violin Competition. Despite her young age and the pause in concerts brought about by the Covid pandemic, Zoja has already completed a substantial number of international concert activities. Her repertoire currently includes virtuosic works by Beethoven, Wieniawski, Saint-Saëns, Mendelssohn, Paganini, Ravel, Waxman and many other composers. This young musician regularly attends masterclasses at leading international violin schools, where she is perfecting her performance art.

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.