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

The names of the finalists and their selected competition pieces will be announced in June.