Vahan Mardirossian, an Armenian-born conductor and pianist based in France, has been appointed as the new Chief Conductor of the Czech Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra Pardubice. He will assume his new role starting from the 2025/2026 season.

Born in 1975 in Yerevan, Armenia, he began his musical education at the Armenian Komitas Conservatory before continuing his studies at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris, where he graduated with honours in 1996. Initially pursuing a career as a pianist, he later shifted his focus to conducting, giving his renditions a unique and multi-faceted artistic perspective by drawing from both disciplines.

For many years, he served as Principal Conductor of the Caen Symphony Orchestra in France and as Music Director of the Armenian National Chamber Orchestra. Since 2020, he has been Music Director of the Royal Chamber Orchestra of Wallonia, where he regularly conducts the orchestral rounds of the prestigious Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels. He also collaborates with the City Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong and has conducted numerous leading orchestras worldwide.

His discography includes an acclaimed recording of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto with Stéphanie-Marie Degand and the Caen Symphony Orchestra, as well as a recording of Florentine Mulsant’s Music for Strings with the Armenian National Chamber Orchestra.

Alongside his conducting career, Mardirossian is also an esteemed educator. He teaches at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris, where he shares his extensive experience with young talents. Additionally, he is a frequent jury member at international music competitions, and leads masterclasses worldwide.

He first introduced himself to Pardubice audiences in 2023, when he conducted the opening concert of the Pardubice Spring Music Festival. He also shares a strong connection with the Czech Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra Pardubice through an extensive discography for the prestigious Dutch label Brilliant Classics.

source: Komorní filharmonie Pardubice

The Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra is a leading contemporary Czech orchestra. Since the 2022/2023 season, it has been led by chief conductor and artistic director Petr Popelka. Robert Jindra has served as principal guest conductor since September 2022.

In the 2025/2026 concert season, the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra welcomes a number of outstanding musicians, including violinists Christian Tetzlaff and Marc Bouchkov, and conductors Jonathan Nott, Tomáš Hanus, Erina Yashima and Andris Poga. Audiences can also look forward to performances by pianists Pierre-Laurent Aimard and Isata Kanneh-Mason, as well as singers Szilvia Vörös and Günther Groissböck. Particularly notable projects will include performances of Igor Stravinsky’s oratorio Oedipus rex under the direction of chief conductor Petr Popelka, and Camille Saint-Saëns’ Organ Symphony, conducted by Robert Jindra with organist Christian Schmitt as soloist. Czech musicians will also be prominently represented, led by violinist Josef Špaček, soprano Kateřina Kněžíková, cellist Tomáš Jamník, and pianists Martin Kasík and Marek Kozák.

In recent years, the orchestra has collaborated with many distinguished conductors, such as Omer Meir Wellber, Cornelius Meister, Ilan Volkov, Wayne Marshall, Ion Marin, Stephan Asbury, Alexander Liebreich, Michał Nesterowicz, Anu Tali and Jessica Cottis; Czech conductors have included e.g. Jakub Hrůša, Tomáš Netopil, Petr Altrichter and Robert Kružík.

Internationally acclaimed soloists who have appeared with the orchestra include pianists Krystian Zimerman and Jean-Efflam Bavouzet; violinists Isabelle Faust, Frank Peter Zimmermann, Renaud Capuçon, Gidon Kremer and María Dueñas; cellists Gautier Capuçon, Daniel Müller-Schott, István Várdai and Steven Isserlis; trombonist Christian Lindberg; and jazz musicians Brad Mehldau and Avishai Cohen. Vocal soloists have included Asmik Grigorian, Elisabeth Teige, Olga Bezsmertna and Michael Weinius, while artists from the Czech music scene include Lukáš Vondráček, Ivo Kahánek, Jan Bartoš, Josef Špaček, Jan Mráček, Adam Plachetka, Simona Šaturová, Petr Nekoranec and Vilém Veverka.

The Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra has a long-standing commitment to performing works by contemporary Czech composers, such as Miroslav Srnka, Ondřej Adámek, Martin Smolka, Pavel Zemek Novák, Jan Ryant Dřízal, Šimon Voseček, Jana Vöröšová, Jan Klusák, Jiří Kadeřábek, Lukáš Hurník, Zbyněk Matějů and Ondřej Štochl.

Recording is also an important part of the orchestra’s work. One of its most acclaimed projects is the album Má vlast, featuring Bedřich Smetana’s symphonic cycle. Released at the end of 2024 after three years in the making, the recording received a Gramophone Editor’s Choice award, the Diapason d’Or ARTE from the prestigious French magazine Diapason, and a nomination for the 2024 Czech Anděl Award  from the Czech Music Academy. In 2024, the orchestra further expanded its discography with a number of recordings in a wide range of musical genres. These include the album Forgotten Czech Piano Concertos, featuring works by Karel Kovařovic, Pavel Bořkovec and Vítězslava Kaprálová. Several jazz and contemporary music projects were created in collaboration with composers and performers such as Luboš Soukup (Scandinavian Impressions), Jaromír Honzák (The Blues of a String Hanging in the Wind), Michal Rataj and Oskar Török (Letters from Sounds), and Vít Křišťan (Mandala). Clarinetist Anna Paulová recorded the album Clarinet Metamorphoses with the orchestra under the direction of Tomáš Brauner, while the recording ’O sole mio with Daniel Matoušek was conducted by Jan Kučera.

The Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra regularly performs concerts from its subscription series at the Dvořák Hall of the Rudolfinum, Smetana Hall of the Municipal House and Bethlehem Chapel, as well as at other venues including Forum Karlín and Czech Radio’s Studio 1. It is a regular guest at major festivals such as the Prague Spring, Dvořák Prague Festival, Smetana’s Litomyšl, Leoš Janáček International Music Festival and the Český Krumlov International Music Festival. In addition, the orchestra frequently performs abroad on stages across Europe and in Japan.

source: The Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra

photo © Petr Neubert

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.