Magdalena Kožená & Czech Philharmonic String Quartet

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. In 2025, Magdalena Kožená received the Antonín Dvořák Award in recognition of her outstanding contribution to Czech music and its international promotion.

source: C.E.M.A. – Central European Music Agency

photo © Julia Wesely

The Czech Philharmonic Quartet was founded in 2025 on the initiative of four of the orchestra’s leading members: violinists Irena Jakubcová (first deputy concertmaster) and Petra Brabcová (principal second violin), violist Eva Krestová (principal viola) and cellist Václav Petr (cello concertmaster). The players – each with long-standing experience at the highest level of orchestral performance – share a deep-rooted chamber music tradition. Alongside their work with the Czech Philharmonic, each of the four musicians is a dedicated soloist and chamber musician, engaging also in projects that continue the legacy of the outstanding Czech string quartet tradition.

The quartet’s sound is shaped by the natural authority that concertmasters and section principals embody: a cultivated tone, precise articulation and an instinctive sense of ensemble that grows out of daily collaboration within one of Europe’s most respected orchestras. Shortly after its formation, the quartet made its international debut during an Asian tour, which included a performance at the MUSE Fest in Hong Kong. One of the quartet’s notable appearances on the Czech music scene was its participation in the ceremonial opening of the Poštovní dvůr in Karlovy Vary as part of the Variace festival.

source: Kvarteto České filharmonie

photo © Petra Hajská

Andrea Rysová studied at the P. J. Vejvanovský Conservatory in Kroměříž. She had several significant competition achievements during her student years. In 1992, she won third prize in the Concertino Praga competition, one year later she was an award winner in the London Chamber Music Competition, and in 1994 she placed third in the Czech Conservatories Competition. In 1995, she was appointed solo flautist of the Moravian Philharmonic Olomouc.

She studied at the Faculty of Music of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague in the class of Jiří Válek from 1996 to 2000, graduating with a Master of Arts degree.

During her studies she performed with a number of ensembles, including Virtuosi di Praga, Musica Bohemica and Czech Nonet, joining them in many concerts in the Czech Republic and abroad. In 2002, she became a member of the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, where she remained until 2006. Since then, she has been principal flute of the Czech Philharmonic, and has served as a section leader since 2018. Today Andrea Rysová is a sought-after flautist, with engagements in leading Czech orchestras and chamber ensembles. She records regularly for Czech Radio and film music recordings, and her performances have been featured on numerous CDs. She has performed throughout Europe, as well as in the United States and Asia.

source: Andrea Rysová

photo © Zdeněk Rys

Jan Mach was born in Jilemnice, where he attended classes at the primary arts school. He studied at the Brno Conservatory with Lubomír Bartoň and at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague under Professors Vlastimil Mareš and Jiří Hlaváč, He completed his doctoral studies there in 2008.

He attended masterclasses in Semmering, Austria, at the Music Academy Telč (formerly the Franco-Czech Academy in Telč), and in Aix-en-Provence, where he became a member of the festival orchestra under the auspices of Ensemble intercontemporain. He also spent six months studying in Karlsruhe, Germany, with Professors Otto Kronthaler and Wolfgang Meyer.

In 1993, he won first prize at the Conservatories Competition in Kroměříž and received the Leoš Janáček Foundation Award for the best graduate of the Brno Conservatory. He was later a finalist of Jeunesses Musicales Romania and an award winner at the ARD International Music Competition in Munich in 2003.

As a soloist, he has collaborated with leading orchestras including the Czech Philharmonic, Munich Chamber Orchestra, Inter>CAMERATA and the Prague Symphony Orchestra (FOK), among others. He has appeared as a chamber musician with numerous renowned ensembles and collaborated with the Pražák Quartet on the premiere and a recording of Jindřich Feld’s Clarinet Quintet. He performs regularly with the Zemlinsky Quartet, with which he has recorded chamber works by František Vincenc Kramář.

In 2003, he and Jan Souček and Václav Vonášek founded Trio Arundo, which has gained considerable popularity with audiences and received the Czech Philharmonic Chamber Music Society Award in 2011. Jan Mach has led masterclasses in Žirovnice, Olomouc, Vardø and Wrocław.

He teaches clarinet at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague and is principal clarinet of the Czech Philharmonic.

source: Jan Mach

photo © Daniel Havel

Karel Košárek graduated from the Conservatory in Kroměříž and the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague and completed his studies in the USA at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. He won a number of international piano competitions and is a laureate of the Walter Naumburg Competition held in New York in 1997. Recitals in Singapore, New York, Dallas, Palm Beach, Calgary, Tel Aviv, St. Petersburg and Bangkok, as well as performances with orchestras in Europe and Japan, document his international musical activities. He has regularly performed at international music festivals and collaborated with leading orchestras such as Czech Philharmonic, Prague Philharmonia, Prague Symphony Orchestra, Nagoya Philharmonic Orchestra, St. Petersburg Chamber Orchestra and Sinfonietta Cracovia.

Karel Košárek records for acclaimed record labels such as Supraphon, Hyperion, Etcetera and Naxos. His first solo recording included works by B. Smetana, B. Martinů, S. Barber and G. Gershwin (Radioservis, 2000). In 2005, a CD of songs with the highly acclaimed Czech baritone Roman Janál was released for Supraphon. In 2008, he recorded a CD with compositions by Bohuslav Martinů with Czech Philharmonic and violinist Bohuslav Matoušek under the baton of Christopher Hogwood (Hyperion). His latest recordings include Bohuslav Martinů’s solo piano compositions for Supraphon and F. X. Dušek’s piano concertos with Prague Chamber Orchestra for Etcetera. In August 2017, Supraphon published a CD with chamber music for piano and strings by composer Petr Eben, which Košárek recorded with Martinů Quartet.

In many of his concert appearances, Košárek has accompanied singers including Magdalena Kožená, Topi Lehtipuu, Krystian Adam, Roman Janál and Richard Novák, as well as players ranging from harpist Jana Boušková and horn player Radek Baborák to violinists Václav Hudeček, Bohuslav Matoušek and Pavel Šporcl, cellist Jiří Bárta and guitarist Pavel Steidl. Košárek also regularly appeared with singer and actor Soňa Červená in her recitals at Ungelt Theatre in Prague and in concerts at Janáček’s May International Music Festival and Golden Prague Television Festival.

source: Karel Košárek

photo © Z. Němec