Antonín Dvořák Prize 2025

Magdalena Kožená is one of the most sought-after singers of our time. Her wide-ranging repertoire spans from Baroque music through works of the Classical and Romantic masters to 20th-century compositions. She studied singing at the Conservatory in Brno, her native city, and later with Eva Blahová at the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava. The most prominent of her many national and international competition successes was her first-place victory at the International Mozart Competition in Salzburg in 1995. During her prolific artistic career to date, she has appeared on many of the world’s leading concert stages and at renowned festivals and has performed numerous roles at celebrated opera houses including London’s Royal Opera House Covent Garden and the Metropolitan Opera in New York. Her recordings for Deutsche Grammophon, EMI Classics, Linn Records and Pentatone have won her virtually every major award bestowed by music magazines, including prestigious Gramophone Awards in several categories.

Magdalena Kožená is not only an outstanding singer, but also a cultural ambassador for the Czech Republic. She actively promotes Czech music and its cultural heritage abroad, both in concert and through her recordings. Her repertoire includes a rich selection of songs by classic Czech composers, especially Antonín Dvořák, Leoš Janáček and Bohuslav Martinů, as well as works by Petr Eben and Jewish composers born in the Czech lands such as Erwin Schulhoff and Hans Krása. She also performs works from the Czech operatic repertoire, as evidenced by acclaimed recordings of Janáček’s Katya Kabanova and Bohuslav Martinů’s Julietta.

Magdalena Kožená is also dedicated to advocating for primary arts education in the Czech Republic. To this end, she founded a charitable foundation that e.g. organises the nationwide Art Schools Open Festival for young performers. She has received numerous prestigious honours for her diverse musical activities. She is a Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres of the French Republic and, in 2023, received the First-Class Medal of Merit in the Field of Art from the President of the Czech Republic. She has also been honoured with the Gratias Agit Award from the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs for promoting the country’s good name and the Gold Medal for Merit in the Arts from the Kennedy Center International Committee on the Arts in Washington, D.C. The city of Halle awarded her the Georg Friedrich Handel Prize, named after the city’s famous native. She holds an honorary doctorate from the Janáček Academy of Performing Arts.

Sir Simon Rattle has long ranked among the most respected conductors in the world. A native of Liverpool, he studied at the Royal Academy of Music in London and began his professional career with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. He became renowned primarily as Chief Conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic, a position he held from 2002 to 2018. During his 16-year tenure there, the orchestra significantly expanded its activities, for example through the Digital Concert Hall project, which allows audiences around the world to experience Philharmonic concerts online. From 2017 to 2023, Simon Rattle served as Music Director of the London Symphony Orchestra, with which he remains affiliated as Conductor Emeritus. He currently works closely with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and is Principal Guest Conductor of the Czech Philharmonic, where he holds the title “Rafael Kubelík Chair.” He also collaborates with other top orchestras including the Vienna Philharmonic, Staatskapelle Berlin and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, as well as with leading opera houses such as the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London, Berlin State Opera and the Metropolitan Opera in New York.

Simon Rattle’s musical sensibility was shaped from an early age by Czech musical culture. At the age of seven, he was already listening to LPs of the Czech Philharmonic under Karel Ančerl, through which he discovered the distinctive musical language of Leoš Janáček. With his father, he played Dvořák’s Slavonic Dances on the piano – works that, by his own account, played a key role in his decision to become a musician. At 15, he attended his first live concert by Rafael Kubelík. The legendary Czech conductor became Rattle’s favourite and, as he says, “changed my life.” Today, Simon Rattle is one of the foremost international performers championing Czech music. His repertoire includes Janáček’s Sinfonietta, Taras Bulba and Glagolitic Mass, Dvořák’s Slavonic Dances and other orchestral works, as well as concertos by Bohuslav Martinů. He has made an acclaimed recording of the complete set of Dvořák’s symphonic poems inspired by Karel Jaromír Erben’s poetry, a live recording of Janáček’s opera The Cunning Little Vixen, and – released last year – the album Czech Songs, featuring songs by Bohuslav Martinů, Antonín Dvořák, Hans Krása and Gideon Klein. Simon Rattle has received many awards, including, among others, the Order of the British Empire, the Order of Merit and the Wolf Prize in the Arts. In 2022, he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Janáček Academy of Performing Arts.