Lukáš Sommer: Dvořák Airlines for String Orchestra (commissioned by the Dvořák Prague Festival)
Josef Haydn: Concerto for Cello and Orchestra No. 1 in C Major, Hob. VIIb/1
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Serenade for Strings in C Major, Op. 48
The Dvořák Prague Youth Philharmonic is a new project of the Academy of Classical Music to be hosted by the festival. The orchestra gave its debut at last year’s festival with a frenzied performance of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 (“Choral”). The orchestra, as conceived by the festival’s executive director, Jan Simon, was put together by conductor Tomáš Netopil at his Summer Music Academy in Kroměříž, and thanks to its association with the Academy of Classical Music, it has become a regular part of the Dvořák Prague Festival. The Dvořák Prague Youth Philharmonic is of enormous importance to the players themselves, as they are able to gain professional experience and get the extra incentive of a festival appearance at the Rudolfinum. The public can look forward to an entirely different kind of experience – they will encounter some of the most talented youth players and their candid, euphoric attitude.
The programme opens with a composition by Lukáš Sommer titled Dvořák Airlines – this is the festival’s first commission of a work by a contemporary composer. The evening will continue with great classics: first, Joseph Haydn’s Cello Concerto No. 1, a work of brilliant invention that is refreshing for audiences and performers alike. The soloist will be Armenian cellist Narek Hakhnazaryan. The programme concludes with the Serenade for Strings by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.
The Dvořák Prague Youth Philharmonic was conceived as an ensemble focusing on the education and development of young, talented musicians. Orchestra members are under age 25 and study at conservatoires and academies of music. The players are recruited from among the attendees of the Orchestral Academy at the Summer Music Academy in Kroměříž, under the leadership of the exceptional conductor, Tomáš Netopil. Top players from the Czech Philharmonic serve as instructors for individual instrumental sections. The project’s mission is to offer these musicians qualified leadership and active experience with rehearsing a selected symphonic work in a professional manner and performing it in public. For the students, the opportunity to appear at the Dvořák Prague Festival lets them present the results of their hard work, ability, and acquired skills. At last year’s festival, the young musicians’ efforts paid off with a performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.
Chief Conductor and Music Director of the Prague Symphony Orchestra (FOK) since September 2025
Since the start of the 2025/2026 season, Tomáš Netopil has held the post of chief conductor and music director of the Prague Symphony Orchestra (FOK). Between 2009 and 2012, he was chief conductor of the National Theatre Opera in Prague, and from 2013 to 2023 he served as general music director of the Aalto Musiktheater and Philharmonie Essen. From 2018 to 2024, he was principal guest conductor of the Czech Philharmonic.
This season, Tomáš Netopil has conducted a trio of Mozart operas: La clemenza di Tito at the Grand Théâtre de Genève, The Magic Flute at the New National Theatre Tokyo, and Don Giovanni at the Cologne Opera. He led the Czech Philharmonic’s New Year’s Concert at Prague’s Rudolfinum in a live television broadcast. He will present a broad array of symphonic repertoire during engagements with the Oslo Philharmonic, Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, Kuopio Symphony Orchestra, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Hong Kong Sinfonietta and the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, among others. He will also return to the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo this season and make his debut with the Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire. Continuing his successful collaboration with the legendary Concentus Musicus Wien, he will perform Mozart’s Requiem at this year’s Prague Spring Festival.
Among Tomáš Netopil’s notable operatic collaborations, in addition to numerous productions at the Aalto Musiktheater Essen, are frequent appearances with the Sächsische Staatsoper Dresden, Vienna State Opera, Dutch National Opera and the Grand Théâtre de Genève.
On the concert stage, he has conducted many world-renowned orchestras, including, in addition to the Essen Philharmonic, Czech Philharmonic and the Prague Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre National de France, Vienna Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo, Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Sinfonia Varsovia, Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, Orchestre de Paris, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and the Orchestra RAI Torino.
Tomáš Netopil is the artistic director of the International Summer Music Academy Kroměříž, which he founded in 2018.
He studied violin at the P. J. Vejvanovský Conservatory in Kroměříž and conducting at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, continuing his studies at the Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm and the Aspen Music Festival and School in the USA, where he won the main prize of the American Academy of Conducting in both 2003 and 2004. He remains a regular guest conductor there. In 2002, he won the Sir Georg Solti Conductors’ Competition in Frankfurt.
His most recent recording — an album of Smetana opera arias with tenor Pavel Černoch and the Czech Philharmonic — was nominated for the 2024 Anděl Awards.
source: The Prague Symphony Orchestra (FOK)
photo © Marco Borggreve
Armenian cellist Narek Hakhnazaryan, who turns 32 this year, is one of the world’s most prominent cellists of the younger generation. His victory at the prestigious Tchaikovsky Competition in 2011 was a springboard for the meteoric rise of his international career. Since then, he has appeared on numerous stages around the globe with illustrious conductors (Valery Gergiev, Ton Koopman, Vladimir Fedoseyev, Neeme Järvi), and he has received enthusiastic reviews, calling him a potential inheritor of the legacy of Mstislav Rostropovich and an aristocrat of the cello who combines technique of the highest order with a feeling for style and musical content. He introduced himself at the Dvořák Prague Festival in 2014 with the Czech Philharmonic under the baton of Jiří Bělohlávek, and he also toured Japan with them. During the last two seasons, his most brilliant successes have included a series of four recitals at London’s Wigmore Hall, concerts with Daniil Trifonov at the Verbier Festival, and a string of appearances in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, and Toronto.
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.
