This year’s Antonín Dvořák Award awards ceremony in the Spanish Hall of Prague Castle will be transformed into a celebration among friends. Although the award – and the glass sculpture of a cello that traditionally accompanies the award – will be presented to conductor Sir Simon Rattle and mezzosoprano Magdalena Kožená, these two outstanding performers will not stand on the stage alone, but will be surrounded by fellow musicians like a deluxe house band. A selection of Antonín Dvořák’s and Beethoven’s smaller, lighter compositions will frame the ceremony, adding to the intimate concert setting. The talents of this multifaceted musical couple will be riveting, just as they have been for years on the world’s most renowned concert stages. Sir Simon Rattle led the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra to prominence and later held the post of Chief Conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic for 16 years. He is currently PrincipalGuest Conductor of the Czech Philharmonic holding the title “Rafael KubelikChair”. At his debut with the orchestra, he captivated the audience withrenditions of the Slavonic Dances and The Golden Spinning Wheel. He also recently released a recording of Jenůfa with the London Symphony Orchestra. Magdalena Kožená has gained international renown for her performances of Bach and Mozart, yet the Czech repertoire is a regular feature on her concert programmes and recordings. Her close ties to her homeland are evident in her renditions of Dvořák’s song cycles and roles in Bohuslav Martinů’s operas, which have brought her acclaim around the world.

Veronika Eberle’s exceptional talent and the poise and maturity of her musicianship have been recognised by many of the world’s finest orchestras, venues and festivals, as well as by some of the most eminent conductors.

Sir Simon Rattle’s introduction of Veronika aged just 16 to a packed Salzburg Festspielhaus at the 2006 Salzburg Easter Festival in a performance of the Beethoven Concerto with the Berliner Philharmoniker, brought her to international attention.

Key orchestra collaborations since then include the London Symphony (Rattle), Concertgebouw (Holliger), New York Philharmonic (Gilbert), Montreal Symphony (Nagano), Munich Philharmonic and Gewandhaus Orchestras (Louis Langrée), Rundfunk Sinfonieorchester Berlin (Janowski), Hessischer Rundfunk Sinfonieorchester (P. Järvi), Bamberger Symphoniker (Robin Ticciati, Nott), Tonhalle Orchester Zurich (M. Sanderling), NHK Symphony (Kout, Stenz, Norrington) and Rotterdam Philharmonic (Rattle, James Gaffigan, Yannick Nézet-Seguin).

source: Askonas Holt

photo © Louie Thain

Brett Dean was born and studied in Australia before moving to Germany. He was a member of the Berlin Philharmonic for fourteen years, during which time he began composing. His music is championed by many of the leading conductors and orchestras worldwide, including Sir Simon Rattle, Vladimir Jurowski, Simone Young, Daniel Harding, Andris Nelsons, Marin Alsop and Sakari Oramo. Much of Dean’s work draws from literary, political, environmental or visual stimuli, including a number of compositions inspired by the artwork of his wife Heather Betts.

Dean began composing in 1988, initially concentrating on experimental film and radio projects and as an improvising performer. Dean’s reputation as a composer continued to develop, and it was through works such as his clarinet concerto Ariel's Music (1995), which won an award from the UNESCO International Rostrum of Composers, and Carlo (1997) for strings, sampler and tape, inspired by the music of Carlo Gesualdo, that he gained international recognition.
Dean won the 2009 Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition for his violin concerto The Lost Art of Letter Writing, and was awarded the 2016 Don Banks Music Award by Australia Council, acknowledging his sustained and significant contribution to Australia’s musical scene. In 2017 his second opera Hamlet was premiered at Glyndebourne Festival Opera to great acclaim, and has since been performed at the Cologne Opera, Adelaide Festival, The Met, the Bayerische Staatsoper and Opera Australia, winning the 2018 South Bank Sky Arts Awards and International Opera Awards for Best New Opera. In 2022 Dean was awarded the Ivor Novello Award for Chamber Ensemble Composition for Madame ma bonne sœur, written for mezzo-soprano Lotte Betts-Dean and the Armida Quartet; and in 2023 he won the Ivor Novello Award for Orchestral Composition for his Cello Concerto, written for Alban Gerhardt.

Other major works by Dean include a Piano Concerto for Jonathan Biss and a Trumpet Concerto for Håkan Hardenberger. Recent works include the orchestral piece Nocturnes and Night Rides for the Bayerische Staatsorchester, and In spe contra spem, for two sopranos and orchestra, premiered by the London Philharmonic Orchestra in 2023. Dean was Composer in Residence of the London Philharmonic Orchestra from 2019–2023, and at the Wigmore Hall for the 2023/24 season. In 2024, Dean was appointed Visiting Professor of the Composition and Contemporary Music Department at the Royal Academy of Music in London.

Dean enjoys a prolific performing career as a violist and conductor, playing his own Viola Concerto with many of the world’s leading orchestras. He is a natural chamber musician, frequently collaborating with other soloists and ensembles including the Doric Quartet, Scharoun Ensemble, the Australian Chamber Orchestra and the Australian National Academy of Music. Dean’s imaginative conducting programmes usually centre around his own works combined with those by other composers. Past performing highlights include the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Concertgebouw Orchestra, Melbourne Symphony, Sydney Symphony, BBC Philharmonic, Gothenburg Symphony, Toronto Symphony and Swedish Chamber Orchestra.

In the 2024/25 season, Dean conducts the Australian National Academy of Music Symphony Orchestra and performs at the Australian Festival of Chamber Music, Hatfield House and the Purbeck International Chamber Music Festival, where Dean’s I Starred Last Night, I Shone receives its world premiere in a new version for voice and string trio. Elsewhere in the season, Dean conducts the Swedish Chamber Orchestra, Lapland Chamber Orchestra, and the Riot Ensemble. 2025 sees the Spanish premiere of Dean’s In spe contra spem by the Orquesta Nacional de España (conducted by Jaime Martín), and the German premiere of Fire Music with the Berlin Philharmonic (conducted by Marin Alsop).

Dean’s music has been recorded for BIS, Chandos, Warner Classics, ECM Records and ABC Classics. Highlights include a BIS release in 2016 of works including Shadow Music, Testament, Short Stories and Etudenfest, performed by the Swedish Chamber Orchestra and conducted by Dean. His Viola Concerto has also been released on BIS with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. The DVD of Hamlet was released by Glyndebourne in June 2018 and won a Gramophone Award in 2019.

source: Intermusica

photo © Bettina Stoess

The cellist Clemens Hagen comes from a Salzburg musical family and received his first instrumental lessons at the age of six. Two years later, he began his studies at the University of Mozarteum; he later transferred to the Basel Music Academy. His teachers included Wilfried Tachezi and Heinrich Schiff. In addition to numerous first prizes, in 1983 Clemens Hagen received the Special Prize from the Vienna Philharmonic and the Karl Böhm Prize.

As a soloist, Clemens Hagen has performed with internationally renowned orchestras such as the Berlin Philharmonic, the Vienna Philharmonic, the Vienna Symphony, the Concertgebouworkest Amsterdam, the Camerata Salzburg, the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, the SWR Symphony Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra, and the NHK Symphony Orchestra Tokyo. He has worked under conductors such as Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Claudio Abbado, Franz Welser-Möst, Ingo Metzmacher, Sándor Végh, Daniel Harding, Zoltán Kocsis, and Sylvain Cambreling.

Clemens Hagen’s extensive discography includes live recordings of Johannes Brahms’ Double Concerto for Violin, Cello, and Orchestra with Gidon Kremer and the Concertgebouworkest Amsterdam under Nikolaus Harnoncourt, and of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Triple Concerto with Thomas Zehetmair, Pierre-Laurent Aimard, and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe – also under Nikolaus Harnoncourt. Clemens Hagen recorded all works for cello and piano by Beethoven and Schumann with Paul Gulda and Stefan Vladar. His most recent recording features him in Joseph Haydn’s Cello Concerto in C major.

Clemens Hagen considers chamber music an essential complement to his solo work: foremost among these is the Hagen Quartet, with which he has been performing worldwide for 40 years and has recorded more than 45 CDs for Deutsche Grammophon. Other chamber music partners include Gidon Kremer, Renaud Capuçon, Leonidas Kavakos, Maxim Vengerov, Christian Tetzlaff, Yuja Wang, Evgeny Kissin, Mitsuko Uchida, Martha Argerich, Hélène Grimaud, Kirill Gerstein, Stefan Vladar, Leif Ove Andsnes, and Sabine Meyer.

In 2003, Claudio Abbado invited Clemens Hagen to join his newly founded Lucerne Festival Orchestra, of which he is still a member. Since the 2018/19 season, he has been the cellist of the Vienna Piano Trio. He has been teaching cello and chamber music at the University of Mozarteum since 1988, and since 2003 he has held a professorship there.
Clemens Hagen plays a cello by Antonio Stradivari from 1698.

source: Künstlersekretariat Buchmann GmbH

photo © Uta Süße-Krause

Since his highly praised 2009 solo debut at Berlin’s Philharmonie, Sacha Rattle has become an established soloist. Noted for his immense sensitivity, warm character and unique sound, his career has developed rapidly with performances throughout Europe, including festival appearances at the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, Spannungen Festival, Gidon Kremer’s Kammermusikfest, Lockenhaus and Italy's AnimaMundi Festival. He made his Asian debut in 2011 as soloist with the Taiwan National Symphony Orchestra, performing works by Copland and Debussy.

Sacha Rattle is also a much sought-after chamber musician, having collaborated with artists such as Isabelle Faust, Lars Vogt, Katia and Marielle Labèque, François Leleux, Pascal Moragues, Guy Braunstein and Peter Donohoe. He performs regularly in recitals with duo partner Zeynep Özsuca. Sacha is also a founding member of the wind quintet and piano sextet, Berlin Counterpoint, an award-winning ensemble which has been performing worldwide since 2010.

Recent highlights include his Wigmore Hall debut, Prussia Cove OCM and tour, concerts with O/Modernt, USA debut tour with Berlin Counterpoint, a residency with the Linien Ensemble in Madrid, double concerto with Peter Donohoe and guest principal with Mahler Chamber Orchestra.

source: sacharattle.com

photo © Sarah Brick

Marco Postinghel has been a professor at the Mozarteum University since 2005 and also teaches at the Mahler Academy of Bolzano and is a woodwind teacher of the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra. He has appeared as a jury member at international competitions such as the international ARD music competition in Munich and "The Muri competition" in Switzerland. He is an honorary member of the Florentine "Accademia dei generosi".

The bassoonist from Bozen completed his musical training first in his hometown with R. Santi, later in Hanover with K. Thunemann. After two years of teaching at the Conservatorio “B. Marcello" in Venice, he perfected his playing at the Karajan Academy of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and was a member of the European Community Youth Orchestra from 1987–1990. Winner of many prizes at international competitions, including in Martigny, Toulon and Prague, his concert career then took him across Europe, the USA, Japan, China, Korea and South America. As a soloist he has played all major bassoon concertos with conductors such as S. Bychkov, C. Davies, C. M. Giulini, B. Haitink, D. Harding, L. Maazel, W. Sawallisch and F. Welser-Möst. Chamber music partners included E. Ax, Y. Bronfman, I. Faust, H. Holliger, L. Kavakos, G. Kremer, V. Mullova, A. Schiff and T. Zimmermann. After four years as solo bassoonist with the Orchestre de Paris, he took up the same position in the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in Munich in 1994. Marco Postinghel also performs with orchestras dedicated primarily to contemporary music, such as the Ensemble Recherche, the Gruppo Maderna and the Ensemble Modern, as well as with chamber orchestras such as the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, the Mahler Chamber Orchestra and the Cappella Andrea Barca. In addition to the classical repertoire, Marco Postinghel deals a lot with literature on historical instruments and gives concerts regularly with ensembles such as The English Baroque Soloists, Balthazar Neumann Ensemble, Accademia Bizantina, Concerto Italiano, Il Suonar Parlante, L'Accademia Giocosa and Musica Saeculorum.

source: Mozarteum University

photo © Matteo Postinghel

Born in 1987 in Detmold, Carsten Carey Duffin took his first French horn lessons at the age of six, studying with hornist and teacher Jörg Schulthess. In January of 2001 he became a private student of the horn instructor and first chair player Prof. Michael Höltzel in Hamburg. In 2004, Carsten became a junior student at the Academy of Music and the Performing Arts in Stuttgart. After graduating from the C. D. Grabbe Gymnasium in Detmold in the autumn of 2006 he became a full-time student in Stuttgart.

Carsten Duffin gained concert experience in Germany, France, the Netherlands, Austria, Hungary, Poland, Mexico, Japan and the United States. Following initial experience in regional and state-wide youth orchestras, he became a member of the German Federal Youth Orchestra as well as the Young German Philharmonic.

He acquired his first professional orchestral experience in the Concert Orchestra of Berlin under Lothar Zagrosek, the Mahler Chamber Orchestra of Berlin under Pierre Boulez and Daniel Harding, and the German Symphony Orchestra of Berlin under Ingo Metzmacher as well as with the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks and the Berlin Philharmonic.

In September of 2007 he became principal horn player at the Stuttgart State Opera. In September of 2010, Carsten Duffin became solo hornist in the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks; he also plays in the orchestra of the Richard Wagner Festival in Bayreuth.

Carsten Duffin has made solo appearances with the Detmold Chamber Orchestra, the Amadé Chamber Orchestra, the Detmold Youth Orchestra, the NRW Orchestra Academy, the NRW State Youth Orchestra and the Bochum Symphony. In 2008/2009 he also appeared as soloist with the University Orchestra of Stuttgart as well as with the International Youth Orchestra Academy of Bayreuth and at the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival.

source: Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks

photo © Astrid Ackermann

Adam Honzírek has served as principal double bass of the Czech Philharmonic since 2019, appearing with the ensemble in many of the world’s leading concert halls, including the Royal Albert Hall in London, Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg and Suntory Hall in Tokyo. He has performed alongside renowned Czech and international artists such as Semyon Bychkov, Sir Simon Rattle, Alain Altinoglu, Jakub Hrůša, Yuja Wang, Gautier Capuçon, Josef Špaček and Jan Martiník.

In addition to his orchestral work, he performs as a chamber and solo double bass player. He also engages with contemporary music, e.g. through a collaboration with the Berg Orchestra, Czech Radio and composer Ondřej Štochl on one of the Music for Sirens projects.

He is a graduate of the Jan Deyl Conservatory in Prague, where he studied double bass with Pavel Klečka, and is currently studying at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague under the guidance of Radomír Žalud.

source: Adam Honzírek

photo © Petra Hajská

The Spanish Hall is the largest ceremonial space of the Prague Castle and is located in the northern wing of the New Royal Palace. It was built at the beginning of the 17th century during the reign of Rudolf II, and its rich stucco decoration is one of the most advanced manifestations of Mannerism in Bohemia before the outbreak of the Thirty Years' War.