Czech Philharmonic • Variations

The Czech violinist Jan Mráček was born in Pilsen and began studying violin at the age of five with Magdaléna Micková. From 2003 he studied with Jiří Fišer, graduating with honours from the Prague Conservatory in 2013, and then at the University of Music and the Performing Arts in Vienna under the guidance of the Vienna Symphony concertmaster Jan Pospíchal.

As a teenager he enjoyed his first major successes, winning numerous competitions, participating in the master classes of Maestro Václav Hudeček – the beginning of a long and fruitful association. He won the Czech National Conservatory Competition in 2008, the Beethoven’s Hradec International Competition with the Dvořák concerto and the Janáček Philharmonic Orchestra in 2009, was the youngest Laureate of the Prague Spring International Festival competition in 2010 and in 2014, he was awarded first prize at Fritz Kreisler International Violin Competition. When the victory of Jan Mráček was confirmed, there was thunderous applause from the audience and the jury. The jury president announced, “Jan is a worthy winner. He has fascinated us from the first round. Not only with his technical skills, but also with his charisma on stage.”

In 2011, he became the youngest soloist in the history of the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra. He has also performed as a soloist with world’s orchestras, including the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, St. Louis Symphony, Symphony of Florida, Kuopio Symphony Orchestra, Romanian Radio Symphony, and others. In June 2026, he will also perform with the Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra. He also performs with a wide range of Czech ensembles. Jiří Bělohlávek first brought him on as guest concertmaster of the Czech Philharmonic, where he has served as principal concertmaster since the 2018/2019 season. In this role, he has performed, for example, with the European Union Youth Orchestra on a summer tour in 2015 under the baton of conductors Gianandrea Noseda and Xian Zhang; he has also appeared as a guest concertmaster with the Berlin Philharmonic and the Cleveland Orchestra.

In 2008 he joined the Lobkowicz Piano Trio, which was awarded first prize and the audience prize at the International Johannes Brahms Competition in Pörtschach, Austria in 2014. In early 2026, they performed at the Antonín Dvořák Memorial to mark the 130th anniversary of the Czech Philharmonic’s first concert. Together with violinist Jiří Vodička, who is also the concertmaster of the Czech Philharmonic, they created the project “Two Masters, One Stage,” in which they can be heard in musical dialogue in works for two violins at various venues across the Czech Republic.

His recording of the Dvořák’s Violin concerto and other works by this Czech composer under James Judd with the Czech National Symphony Orchestra was recently released on the Onyx label and has received excellent reviews. He is currently preparing a CD recording featuring works by Suk, Mendelssohn, and Schubert.

In 2021, he was awarded the Jiří Bělohlávek Prize at the Czech Philharmonic’s Open-Air concert. Jan Mráček plays a 1770 Nicolò Gagliano violin, which was loaned to him by the Dutch Fidula Foundation. 

The Czech mezzo-soprano Lucie Hilscherová, a laureate of the Karlovy Vary International Competition, Cantilena Bayreuth, and Musica Sacra in Rome, makes guest appearances at many Czech and Slovak theatres including Prague’s National Theatre, and also at the National Theatre in Mannheim, where she has sung roles in a broad repertoire ranging from Mozart to Hába. She introduced herself to the public at Tokyo’s Suntory Hall and London’s Barbican Hall as Háta in The Bartered Bride. In the 2025/2026 season, she could be heard in Poulenc’s Dialogues of the Carmelites, Janáček’s The Makropulos Affair, and Dvořák’s Rusalka. She has also toured Europe with Janáček’s Glagolitic Mass, which she successfully performed with Sir Simon Rattle and the Czech Philharmonic at the Rudolfinum in January 2025. Her domain is the concert hall, singing both the art song and oratorio repertoire, as is seen from her collaborations with leading orchestras and conductors. She also enjoys performing early music and the works of contemporary composers. She has also performed at numerous festivals, including Musikfest Stuttgart, Beethovenfest Bonn, and Grafenegg Musik-Sommer. 

For the American bass David Leigh, today’s encounter with the Czech Philharmonic is not a debut either. He and the orchestra already collaborated in the 2023/24 season for a performance of Mahler’s Eighth Symphony on tour in Hamburg. However, the young singer’s chief domain is opera, to which he devotes himself at a world-class level despite his young age. As a member of the prestigious Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, he has appeared on stage regularly at New York’s Metropolitan Opera, and since then he has sung such important roles as Hagen (Der Ring des Nibelungen) in a production at the Zurich Opera House, King Mark (Tristan und Isolde) with the Santa Fe Opera, and Filippo (Don Carlos) with the Dallas Opera.

He benefitted from ideal conditions for musical development. He was born to an artistic family—his father is a respected composer, his mother is an acclaimed painter, and his sister is a noted playwright. Leigh studied composition at Yale University, then voice and opera at the Mannes College and the Yale School of Music, where he also earned the Harriet Gibbs Fox Memorial Prize for the best grades. He has also been awarded prizes by the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, the McCammon Competition held by the Fort Worth Opera, and the Wagner Society of New York.

A graduate of Prague’s Academy of Performing Arts and of a year-long study visit at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Hamburg, since 2006 Daniela Valtová Kosinová has been the solo organist and principal keyboard player of the Prague Symphony Orchestra. As a soloist, she collaborates with other Czech and foreign orchestras and appears regularly with the Czech Philharmonic, with which she has twice toured the USA. Her first performance with this orchestra of the Glagolitic Mass, to which she “found a path of her own”, took place at Vienna’s Musikverein under the baton of Jiří Bělohlávek, followed by several more performances including one on a floating stage on the Vltava and others on a tour of Europe in 2022. 

A winner of third prize and the title of laureate at the Brno International Organ Competition in 2002, she is often invited to such leading music festivals as Beethovenfest Bonn, Prague Spring, Smetana’s Litomyšl, and Janáček May. She is a cofounder of the concert programme Music Between the Words, and she also devotes herself to composing. In 2010 she released a jazz album of her own music titled Meeting Point, and she has appeared at numerous jazz festivals.

The Prague Philharmonic Choir (PPC), founded in 1935 by the choirmaster Jan Kühn, is the oldest professional mixed choir in the Czech Republic. Their current choirmaster and artistic director is Lukáš Vasilek, and the second choirmaster is Lukáš Kozubík.

The choir has earned the highest acclaim in the oratorio and cantata repertoire, performing with the world’s most famous orchestras. In this country, they collaborate regularly with the Czech Philharmonic and the Prague Philharmonia. They also perform opera as the choir-in-residence of the opera festival in Bregenz, Austria.

Programmes focusing mainly on difficult, lesser-known works of the choral repertoire. For voice students, they are organising the Academy of Choral Singing, and for young children there is a cycle of educational concerts.

The choir has been honoured with the 2018 Classic Prague Award and the 2022 Antonín Dvořák Prize.

Lukáš Vasilek studied conducting and musicology. Since 2007, he has been the chief choirmaster of the Prague Philharmonic Choir (PPC). Most of his artistic work with them involves rehearsing and performing a cappella repertoire and preparing them to perform in large-scale cantatas, oratorios, and operatic projects in collaboration with world-famous conductors and orchestras (Vienna Symphony Orchestra, Czech Philharmonic, Israel Philharmonic, Kyiv Symphony Orchestra, etc.).

In addition to leading the PPC, he is active in a wide range of artistic projects, most notably in collaboration with the vocal ensemble Martinů Voices, which he founded in 2010. As a conductor and choirmaster, he appears on numerous recordings for major international labels, including Decca Classics and Supraphon. In recent years, he has focused systematically on recording the choral music of Bohuslav Martinů. His recordings have received extraordinary worldwie acclaim and have earned awards from prestigious publications such as Gramophone, BBC Music Magazine, and Diapason.