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

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 the Chamber Music category, young performers compete every two years, while soloists compete annually. This evening, four finalists will perform solo concertos in Dvořák Hall, accompanied by the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of conductor Jan Kučera.

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 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

The conductor, composer, and pianist Jan Kučera, born in 1977 in Klatovy, is one of the most versatile Czech artists. He studied composition with Bohuslav Řehoř, conducting with Miriam Němcová and Miroslav Košler at the Prague Conservatory and, subsequently, conducting with Vladimír Válek at the Academy of Performing Arts Prague. Within his conservatory graduation concert, he debuted as a conductor with the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra and premiered his three tone poems, based on motifs from works by Czech writers (Kundera, Hrabal, Kolář). He has composed symphonic and chamber pieces, cantatas, and songs, as well as incidental music for more than 30 productions for theatres in Prague and elsewhere in the Czech Republic. He has also created musical arrangements, including symphonic adaptations of songs and melodies from Czech films.

As a conductor, Jan Kučera has regularly collaborated with leading Czech orchestras, with whom he has performed or recorded the classical repertoire, as well as more than 100 symphonic pieces by contemporary composers, many of them in premiere. Between 2002 and 2010 he mainly worked with the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra. In June 2007, in co-operation with Canada’s renowned Compagnie Marie Chouinard, he and the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra performed Igor Stravinsky’s Le sacre du printemps. In the same year, he received an honourable mention in the conducting competition within the Prague Spring festival. In October 2007, he conducted the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra’s acclaimed performance at the Musikverein in Vienna of Dvořák’s New World Symphony, which he also presented during a tour of Japan, together with Beethoven’s symphonies. Within the Czech Republic’s Presidency of the Council of the EU in 2009, he and the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra recorded for Supraphon the national anthems of the 27 EU member states. Owing to his musical versatility and promptitude, he has been frequently invited to participate in crossover concerts too. He has also collaborated with the Prague Symphony Orchestra, with whom he has performed Smetana’s My Country, Janáček’s Glagolitic Mass, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, and other works.

Jan Kučera has also been active in the opera domain. At the National Moravian-Silesian Theatre in Ostrava, he conducted the productions of Martinů’s Mirandolina and Prokofiev’s The Fiery Angel. At the National Theatre in Prague, he prepared the music and conducted the production of Shostakovich’s Antiformalist Rayok / Orango, the world premiere of his own comic opera Red Mary and Rossini’s La cenerentola. In 2016 he wrote a ballet The Three Musketeers for National Moravian-Silesian Theatre in Ostrava. His second ballet music The Taming of the Shrew will be premiered in November 2018 in the J. K. Tyl Theatre in Pilsen.

In 2015–2021 he was engaged as the chief conductor of the Karlovy Vary Symphony Orchestra.

Fabian Johannes Egger was born in 2007. He has studied at the Leopold Mozart Institute for the Encouragement of Talented Students at the Mozarteum University Salzburg since 2016 and has also been a student of Professor Andrey Lieberknecht in Munich since 2020. In recent years, he has won a number of first prizes at national and international competitions. He has been invited to a number of festivals as a guest performer, including Mozartwoche Salzburg, the Salzburg Festival, Arsonore Graz, La Côte Flute Festival, the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival and so on. He is interested in various musical styles, in improvisation and in composition. The BR4 Classic radio station has broadcast several of his compositions for solo flute, which he both composed and performed. In 2022, he performed the premiere of his composition Icy Times for flute and piano at the Tampere Flute Fest gala concert in Finland. He considers it especially important to write for young people in order to foster their interest in music and to contribute in a small way to transforming the world into a better place to live.

Margaryta Pochebut was born in Karkhiv, Ukraine. She started her musical career at the age of six at a school for talented children in Kiev and at the same time she also studies at the International Menuhin Music Academy in Switzerland. She debuted as a soloist with a symphony orchestra in 2015 and participated in the very first Mischa Elman International Violin Competition, where she won the Grand Prix. Over the last seven years of her active musical career, she has performed in the very best concert halls in Ukraine, Italy, France, Switzerland, Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovenia etc. Her extensive repertoire consists of works by Édouard Lalo, Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, Antonio Vivaldi, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Fritz Kreisler, Niccolò Paganini etc. She has been a laureate at more than ten prestigious international competitions, including the Ysaye Junior Competition, the violin competition in Astana, the Il Piccolo Violino Magico International Competition for Young Violinists or the international Louis Spohr Violin Competition for young violinists.

Denis Stefanov (born in 2007 in Prague) has been a student of the Prague Music School since 2013, where he studies piano with Professor Peter Toperczer.

Throughout his studies, he has taken part in a number of piano competitions where he has received many first prizes: the Karlovarská růžička competition (2015), Prague Junior Note (2016, 2018, 2021, 2022), Amadeus (2015, 2018, 2021), where in 2018 and 2021 he received the Brno Mayor's Award for the best interpretation of W. A. Mozart, Young Pianists on Steinway Piano (2014, 2016, 2018), Central Round of the Arts School Piano Competition (2017), Broumovská klávesa (2022), and the Smetana Piano Competition in Pilsen (2023).

He has been declared the overall winner of several competitions: the Karlovarská růžička Competition, Prague Junior Note, the Regional Round of the School Arts Piano Competition (2017), Amadeus (2021). In the autumn of 2019, he also won the title of Young Piano at the international competition Young Piano of the Prague Conservatory.

In 2016, as a member of a chamber ensemble (Baroque quartet), he won first prize in the Regional Round of the Arts School Competition for chamber ensembles with a predominance of string instruments and played in the winners' concert on an authentic harpsichord in Suk Hall at the Rudolfinum.

He has attended several piano courses in Mikulov (2017, 2018, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023), Český Krumlov (2019, 2022, 2023), and the Prague Conservatory International Summer Piano Courses (2020).

In the 2021/2022 school year, he participated in the Menart scholarship programme thanks to which he performed at the Prague Spring and Smetana Litomyšl festivals.

In 2019 and 2023, he performed with the FOK Orchestra at the Municipal House in Prague as part of the Young Talents for Jozef Suk series. In 2023, he participated in the Concertino Praga competition, thanks to which he played with the Prague Radio Symphonic Orchestra in the finals at the , where he received honorary mention of the 1st degree. In 2019 and 2022, he participated in the Young Talents Concert at the International Chopin Festival in Mariánské Lázně. Yakimov is currently a student at the Music Secondary Grammar School of the Capital City of Prague.

Adam Znamirovský began playing the piano spontaneously at the age of four. Since seven he has been winning prizes at national and international competitions. He can be regarded as the most compelling piano talent in the under-15 category in the Czech Republic. His clear achievements include a concert in the Dvořák Hall of the Rudolfinum where he performed Rachmaninov’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini with the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Elias Grandy. Among his other successes is study at the Verbier Festival Academy where he received the Edwin Caplin Foundation Award for top students. Adam is a MenART scholarship holder in the studio of Ivo Kahánek with whom he also studied at the Summer Music Academy in Kroměříž.

source: Adam Znamirovský

photo © Tom McKenzie

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.