Concertino Praga 2026 Final Competition Round, Wind intruments category

In 1994, the world-renowned conductor Jiří Bělohlávek, together with a group of talented young musicians, founded the Prague Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra. Its successes abroad and expanding repertoire led the orchestra to first change its name to PKF–Prague Philharmonia, and now, in the 2024/2025 season, it presents itself as the Prague Philharmonia.

Over the past 30 years, the orchestra has earned recognition across the musical world for its distinctive sound and its focused repertoire, which centres on the works of Joseph Haydn, W. A. Mozart, and Ludwig van Beethoven. Its core repertoire also includes music by Antonín Dvořák, Bedřich Smetana, and their successors, as well as French and German composers ranging from Robert Schumann to Johannes Brahms and Maurice Ravel. Twentieth-century compositions and contemporary works are also an integral part of its programming. The Prague Philharmonia retains its chamber character, as well as its passionate commitment and attention to detail, yet today it stands between a chamber ensemble and a small symphony orchestra in terms of size.

Since its founding, the orchestra has been led by a number of renowned chief conductors, each of whom has contributed in his own way to the development of the Prague Philharmonia’s distinctive sound. Following Jiří Bělohlávek, Kaspar Zehnder took over as chief conductor in 2005, followed by Jakub Hrůša in 2008. Since the beginning of the 2015/2016 season, the orchestra has been under the leadership of French conductor Emmanuel Villaume.

The Prague Philharmonia has performed with internationally acclaimed soloists, including Julian Rachlin, Martha Argerich, Yefim Bronfman, András Schiff, Gil Shaham, Isabelle Faust, Emmanuel Pahud, Luciano Pavarotti, Diana Damrau, Anna Netrebko, Plácido Domingo, Gautier Capuçon, Maxim Vengerov, Mischa Maisky, Juan Diego Flórez, Jonas Kaufmann, and many others.

The orchestra is regularly invited to prestigious international music festivals, such as the BBC Proms, Dresdner Musikfestspiele, MITO Settembre Musica, Prague Spring, and Festspielhaus Baden-Baden. It has performed at renowned concert venues, including the Berliner Philharmonie, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Gasteig Munich, Tokyo Suntory Hall, Royal Opera House Muscat in Oman, Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmad Cultural Centre in Kuwait, Seoul Arts Center, Musikverein Vienna, and Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris, among others.

The Prague Philharmonia's discography includes more than 90 recordings for prestigious international and Czech music labels, such as Deutsche Grammophon, Warner Classics, Sony Classical, Decca, EMI, Harmonia Mundi, and Supraphon. Its recordings have garnered numerous awards, including the Gold Record RAC Canada in 2000, the Harmonie Award in 2001, and the Diapason d’Or in 2007. The album Héroïque with Bryan Hymel was nominated for the International Opera Award in 2016, while Bohemian Rhapsody with Gábor Boldoczki received a nomination for the International Classical Music Award (ICMA) in 2017. Its Ravel, Debussy & Bizet recording received outstanding reviews from The Sunday Times, Gramophone, and BBC Music Magazine, which included it in its top 10 recordings of the week. The orchestra's collaboration with acclaimed tenor Benjamin Bernheim for Deutsche Grammophon in November 2019 won the Opus Klassik Award and received multiple accolades in the international press, including the Diapason d’Or and Choc de Classica.

Most recently, the orchestra has toured Japan, Germany, Italy, Turkey, France, and Taiwan, and has performed at the Musikverein in Vienna. In 2023, it recorded an album for Deutsche Grammophon with tenor Jonathan Tetelman and a recording of works by Penderecki with flutist Stathis Karapanos for Warner Classics.

source: Prague Philharmonia

photo © Michael Tomeš

Marko Ivanović is a leading conductor and versatile musical figure on the contemporary Czech concert and theatre scene. He studied conducting and composition at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. In 2003, he was an award winner at the Grzegorz Fitelberg International Competition for Young Conductors in Katowice.

As a conductor, he collaborates with leading Czech and international orchestras such as the Prague Symphony Orchestra (FOK), Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, Brno Philharmonic, PKF – Prague Philharmonia, Sudeten Philharmonic in Poland and the Toho Academy Orchestra in Toyama, Japan. He is a regular guest at the most eminent Czech music festivals, including the Prague Spring, Smetana’s Litomyšl and Leoš Janáček International Music Festival.

He also engages broadly with the operatic repertoire and is a frequent guest at opera houses in the Czech Republic and abroad, including e.g. the National Theatre in Prague, National Moravian-Silesian Theatre in Ostrava, Malmö Opera and the Gothenburg Opera. He is also dedicated to promoting classical music among the public. At the Czech Philharmonic, for example, he co-founded the educational concert series Steps to the New World.

His work as a recording artist and producer is equally significant. In 2023, he received the Anděl Award for an album of symphonic works by Miloslav Kabeláč, released by Supraphon in collaboration with the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra.

As a composer, Marko Ivanović creates classical works and also devotes considerable attention to stage, radio and film music. His compositional oeuvre includes the operas The Girl and Death (Inspirace, 2002), Magical Land (National Theatre, 2012), The Last Polo (Houseopera, 2018) and Monument (National Theatre Brno, 2019). In 2023, his ballet The Jungle Book premiered in a production by the Czech Philharmonic and the Forman Brothers’ Theatre.

From 2006 to 2010, he served as a conductor at the National Theatre in Prague. Between 2010 and 2015, he was chief conductor of the Pardubice Chamber Philharmonic, and from 2015 to 2025 he held the position of chief conductor of the National Theatre Brno. He is also a co-founder and chief conductor of the Czech Philharmonic Youth Orchestra.

source: Marko Ivanović

photo © David Konečný

Sebastian Cretan was born into a Czech-Romanian musical family in 2010. He has played the piano since the age of four and added the trombone at the age of nine (and later the baritone).

Sebastian Cretan was born into a Czech-Romanian musical family in 2010. He has played the piano since the age of four and added the trombone at the age of nine (and later the baritone). He very quickly garnered significant success: a solo piano concert at the Rudolfinum (Dvořák Prague 2021), the winner and laureate of the international Pro Bohemia 2022 competition (piano, trombone), a soloist at the Zlatá Pecka festival (piano, trombone) and the winner of the Žestě Brno Junior 2024 international competition (trombone, baritone). He is currently a first-year student at the Prague Conservatory in the trombone class of Professor J. Šimek. His latest successes have included a double victory at the international Pro Bohemia 2026 competition (trombone, baritone), where he also won the absolute winner’s title for young brass players. In May 2026, he won the trombone section of the Brno International Brass Instrument Competition. He has been interested in tractors since he was a child and has currently added motorcycles to that: he is currently repairing his Jawa 50 motorbike.

source: Concertino Praga

photo © Josef Dočekal

Alina Lamziuk started playing the oboe at the State Music Lyceum in Kharkov in 2019 as a nine-year-old.

After moving to Slovakia in 2022, she continued her musical education at the State Conservatory in Bratislava. Her latest successes include the first prize in the junior category at the Conservatory Student Competition in Košice (2025) and the first prize and laureate’s title at the Pro Bohemia international performance competition in Ostrava (2025). Alina regularly develops her musical abilities by attending masterclasses and expert events, for example, a chamber music course in Komárno with Professor Ivan Danek and a symposium in Banská Bystrice led by Professor Anna Štrbová. In 2025, she performed as a soloist with the Student Orchestra of the State Conservatory at the Bratislava Philharmonic in Bratislava. In the same year, she won a competition, thanks to which she received the opportunity to perform as a soloist with the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra, with which she plans to perform in the Slovak Radio concert hall in the 2026 season.

source: Concertino Praga

photo © Peter Bučko

Vojtěch Stejskal was born into an artistic family in Prague in 2009. He has been involved with music from the age of five, when he began playing the violin and piano and has dedicated himself to the trumpet since the age of eight. In 2024, he graduated from Tomáš Hrbáček’s class at Music Art Barrandov. In 2023, he received the 1^st prize in both the regional and national rounds of the Arts Primary School competition. Thanks to the erstwhile school principal, Josef Vondráček, he was twice able to perform with the Smíchov Chamber Philharmonic as a soloist. He is now in his second year of studies at the Prague Conservatory in MgA. Walter Hofbauer’s class. He regularly participates at Czech Brass Academy masterclasses held by Marek Zvolánek. In 2023 and 2025, he studied in the class of Professor Eric Aubier and in 2024 he worked under the tutelage of Marc Geujon. He has chosen the Concerto for Trumpet and Orchestra (1950) by the Armenian composer Alexander Artjunjan for the Concertino Praga 2026 competition. He enjoys playing 20^th-centiry music and hopes to one day perform this concerto accompanied by an orchestra.

source: Concertino Praga

photo © Jiří Skupien

Elen Virabyan was born into a musical family in 2010. She started playing the flute at the age of seven when she entered Zara Parvanyan’s class at the Gnesin Russian Academy of Music.

The flute has become a rich and varied part of her life thanks to her participation at international competitions and festivals. She received a number of first prizes during her studies: two at the Dutch International Flute Competition, at the Flute Competition in Tampere, Finland, at the International Competition of Young Talent in Armenia and so on. As the winner of the national round, Elen had the honour of representing Armenia in the finale of the Eurovision Young Musicians in 2026. Meeting and studying under internationally renowned flautists such as Felix Rengli, Andrea Lieberknecht, Mario Caroli, Vincent Lucas, Ulla Millman and many others has greatly inspired her and provided her with significant motivation to study more. In addition to the flute, she also plays the duduk, an ancient Armenian instrument with a history stretching back thousands of years. She is a co-founder of the International Flute Festival in Yerevan.

source: Concertino Praga

photo © Emil Matveev