Carnegie Hall

Gramophone’s 2024 Orchestra of the Year, the 129-year-old Czech Philharmonic gave its first concert—an all-Dvořák program conducted by the composer himself—in Prague’s Rudolfinum on January 4, 1896. Acknowledged for its definitive performances of Czech composers, the orchestra is also recognized for its deep relationships to Brahms, Tchaikovsky, and Gustav Mahler, who conducted the world premiere of his Symphony No. 7 with the orchestra in 1908. It is currently recording the complete cycle of Mahler’s symphonies for Pentatone with Chief Conductor and Music Director Semyon Bychkov.

The Czech Philharmonic’s extraordinary and proud history reflects both its location at the very heart of Europe and the Czech Republic’s turbulent political history, for which Smetana’s Má vlast has become a potent symbol. For the Year of Czech Music in 2024, the orchestra celebrated the bicentenary of Smetana’s birth with a new recording of Má vlast conducted by Mr. Bychkov and rare concert performances of Libuše with Principal Guest Conductor Jakub Hrůša. At Carnegie Hall, they are joined by the orchestra’s artist-in-residence, Daniil Trifonov, along with Yo-Yo Ma and Gil Shaham.

Two features have remained at the Czech Philharmonic’s core throughout its history: the championing of Czech composers, and a belief in music’s power to change lives. From as early as the 1920s, Václav Talich, the orchestra’s chief conductor from 1919 to 1941, pioneered concerts for workers, young people, and volunteer organizations—a philosophy that is equally as vibrant today.

Along with its youth orchestra, orchestral academy, and Jiří Bělohlávek Prize for young musicians, the Czech Philharmonic’s comprehensive education strategy engages with more than 400 schools. An inspirational music and song program led by singer Ida Kelarová for the extensive Romany communities within the Czech Republic and Slovakia has helped many socially excluded families find a voice. As part of the Year of Czech Music, four members of the orchestral academy perform with young musicians from Carnegie Hall and London’s Royal Academy of Music, with which the Czech Philharmonic holds an annual education exchange program.

Semyon Bychkov’s tenure as chief conductor and music director of the Czech Philharmonic began in 2018 with a series of concerts in Prague, London, New York, and Washington, DC, that marked the 100th anniversary of Czechoslovak independence. The following year saw the culmination of The Tchaikovsky Project, an exploration of the composer’s works that featured concerts, residencies, and recordings of his symphonies for Decca Classics.

In recognition of the Year of Czech Music in 2024, Mr. Bychkov and the Czech Philharmonic give pride of place to Czech composers both at home and on tour in Europe and the US. In addition, Pentatone has released recordings of Smetana’s Má vlast and Dvořák’s symphonies nos. 7, 8, and 9, coupled with the trio of overtures Nature, Life, and Love. Mr. Bychkov and the orchestra are currently midway through a complete cycle of Gustav Mahler’s symphonies.

Mr. Bychkov brings a unique combination of innate musicality and rigorous Russian pedagogy to repertoire that spans four centuries. He holds honorary titles with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Royal Academy of Music, and has recorded with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra; Royal Concertgebouw, Philharmonia, and London Philharmonic orchestras; Berliner Philharmoniker; Orchestre de Paris; and WDR Symphony Orchestra. He was named Conductor of the Year at the International Opera Awards in 2015 and by Musical America in 2022.

Like the Czech Philharmonic, Mr. Bychkov has one foot firmly in the culture of the East and the other in the West. Born in St. Petersburg in 1952, he immigrated to the United States in 1975 and has lived in Europe since the mid-1980s. He returned to the former Soviet Union in 1989 as principal guest conductor of the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra; that same year, he was named music director of the Orchestre de Paris. In 1997, he was appointed chief conductor of the WDR Symphony Orchestra, and in 1998, he became chief conductor of the Semperoper Dresden.

Grammy Award–winning Russian pianist Daniil Trifonov is a solo artist, champion of the concerto repertoire, chamber and vocal collaborator, and composer. In the 2024–2025 season, he undertakes season-long residencies with both the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Czech Philharmonic, with which he tours to Carnegie Hall. He also opens the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra’s season, returns to the San Francisco Symphony and NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, tours Europe with both the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal and Bamberg Symphony, gives US recital tours with a solo program and with violinist Leonidas Kavakos, and releases My American Story: North, his newest double album as an exclusive Deutsche Grammophon artist. His existing DG discography has been recognized with BBC Music Magazine’s Concerto Recording of the Year, multiple Grammy nominations, and the Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Solo Album of 2018. He has also been named Artist of the Year by both Gramophone and Musical America, and a Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government; his earlier honors include Third Prize in Warsaw’s International Chopin Piano Competition, First Prize in Tel Aviv’s Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition, and both First Prize and the Grand Prix in Moscow’s International Tchaikovsky Competition. Mr. Trifonov studied with Sergei Babayan at the Cleveland Institute of Music.

Czech soprano Kateřina Kněžíková has received acclaim for her “willowy, seductive voice and natural interpretative skill, always in full technical control” (Gramophone). A longtime resident artist at the Prague National Opera, Ms. Kněžíková’s roles include Dvořák’s Rusalka, Smetana’s Libuše, Janáček’s Vixen and Jenůfa, Puccini’s Mimì, and Mozart’s Donna Elvira, Countess Almaviva, and Fiordiligi. Highlights this season include Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 with Vasily Petrenko in Bucharest, her debut in Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 with Semyon Bychkov and the Czech Philharmonic, and her return to the Glyndebourne Festival Opera as Káťa Kabanová, a role she debuted there in 2021.

Ms. Kněžíková’s symphonic repertoire includes Janáček’s Glagolitic Mass; Dvořák’s Svatá Ludmila, Stabat Mater, and Te Deum; Martinů’s The Epic of Gilgamesh; and Brahms’s Ein Deutsches Requiem, as well as works by Beethoven, Mahler, and Mozart. She has appeared as a soloist with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Vienna and Bamberg symphonies, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, London and Rotterdam philharmonic orchestras, Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, and Camerata Salzburg. She has collaborated with renowned conductors who include Jiří Bělohlávek, Manfred Honeck, John Nelson, Karina Canellakis, Jonathan Nott, Serge Baudo, Jakub Hrůša, Domingo Hindoyan, Robin Ticciati, Oksana Lyniv, James Gaffigan, and Tomáš Netopil.

Ms. Kněžíková’s newest recording, Tag und Nacht on the Supraphon label, features Richard Strauss’s Four Last Songs and selected lieder with the Bamberg Symphony and Jakub Hrůša. Her first solo album, Phidylé—released in 2021 on Supraphon—was named an Editor’s Choice and one of the Best Classical Albums of 2021 by Gramophone, and won BBC Music Magazine’s Vocal Award category in 2022.

Czech mezzo-soprano Lucie Hilscherová has been a guest singer at the National Theatre in Prague, National Moravian-Silesian Theatre, National Theatre Košice, and Nationaltheater Mannheim. In addition to opera, she can be heard regularly in concert with a wide musical spectrum that ranges from Baroque to contemporary music. Concert engagements have included Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 and Missa solemnis, Rossini’s Stabat mater and Petite messe solennelle, Dvořák’s Stabat mater and Requiem, Verdi’s Requiem, Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde and symphonies nos. 2 and 3, Stravinsky’s Les noces, Prokofiev’s Alexander Nevsky, Janáček’s Glagolitic Mass, and Berio’s Folk Songs.

She has collaborated with conductors who include Jiří Bělohlávek, Semyon Bychkov, Dennis Russell Davies, Christoph Eschenbach, Cornelius Meister, Tomáš Netopil, Kazushi Ono, Libor Pešek, David Porcelijn, Helmuth Rilling, Leoš Svárovský, Alexander Vedernikov, and Petr Vronský, and has appeared with orchestras that include the BBC, London, Tokyo Metropolitan, and Stuttgart Radio symphony orchestras; Bach-Collegium Stuttgart; Tonkünstler Orchestra; Czech Philharmonic; Prague Symphony Orchestra; Prague Philharmonia; Brno Philharmonic Orchestra; and Collegium 1704.

Festival appearances include the Edinburgh International Festival, Musikfest Stuttgart, Beethovenfest Bonn, Richard Strauss Festival in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Prague Spring, Prague Proms, Dvořák Prague International Music Festival, Easter Festival of Sacred Music in Brno, Smetana’s Litomyšl, and Peter Dvorský International Music Festival.

Czech tenor Aleš Briscein is a regular guest at Prague’s National Theatre, State Opera, and Estates Theatre. Since 2004, he has been a regular guest at the Opéra de Paris, where he has been heard in Smetana’s The Bartered Bride, Janáček’s The Makropulos Affair and From the House of the Dead, Beethoven’s Fidelio, and Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos, Der Rosenkavalier, and Elektra.

Mr. Briscein has performed numerous roles in the Czech operatic repertory, including works by Dvořák, Smetana, Janáček, and Fibich; in addition, he regularly performs operas by Verdi, Bellini, Wagner, Tchaikovsky, Donizetti, Gounod, Prokofiev, and Mozart. Recent engagements have included performances at the Vienna State Opera, Komische Oper Berlin, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Staatsoper Berlin, Salzburg Festival, Semperoper Dresden, Bavarian State Opera, Theater an der Wien, Savonlinna Opera Festival, London’s BBC Proms, and Oper Frankfurt, as well as at venues in Tokyo, Hong Kong, Geneva, Graz, Nürnberg, Freiburg, Erl, Cyprus, Valencia, Bologna, Lille, Caen, Angers, Nantes, Antwerp, Auckland, and Vancouver.

He is a regular guest at international festivals that include Edinburgh International and Prague Spring, and has collaborated with conductors who include Sylvain Cambreling, Christoph von Dohnányi, John Fiore, Leo Hussain, Kent Nagano, Tomáš Netopil, Sir Simon Rattle, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Stefan Soltesz, and David Zinman. His concert repertoire includes Stravinsky’s Les noces, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 and Missa solemnis, Dvořák’s Stabat mater, Mahler’s Symphony No. 8, and Janáček’s Glagolitic Mass.

Mr. Briscein studied clarinet, saxophone, and voice at the Prague Conservatory and later continued his studies at the University of West Bohemia in Plzeň. In 2012, he won the Thalia Prize for his portrayal of Roméo in Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette at the National Moravian-Silesian Theatre in Ostrava. In 2014, he received the same award for the role of Jaroměr in Fibich’s The Fall of Arkun at the National Theatre in Prague.

A graduate of the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, American bass David Leigh is celebrated for his visceral and intelligent singing. In the 2024–2025 season, he makes his Opéra de Paris debut as Virgilio in the world premiere of Pascal Dusapin’s Il viaggio, Dante, conducted by Kent Nagano; sings Rocco in Beethoven’s Fidelio at Washington National Opera; and appears in concert with Semyon Bychkov and the Czech Philharmonic in Janáček’s Glagolitic Mass, on tour in Karlovy Vary and at Carnegie Hall, and as Pater Profundus in Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 as part of the Prague Spring Festival, which will later be released as a recording. In addition, he joins the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra for Mozart’s Requiem and Nashville Symphony for Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, and presents a solo concert with Minnesota Opera.

In the 2023–2024 season, Mr. Leigh appeared at Opernhaus Zürich as Hagen in Götterdämmerung and Fafner in Siegfried, and returned to the Canadian Opera Company as the Commendatore in Kasper Holten’s production of Don Giovanni. On the concert stage, he made debuts with Semyon Bychkov and the Czech Philharmonic at Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie in Mahler’s Symphony No. 8, and with the Richmond Symphony for Verdi’s Requiem.

Mr. Leigh studied music composition at Yale University and holds master’s degrees in voice from Mannes School of Music and opera from the Yale School of Music, where he received the Harriet Gibbs Fox Prize. He has received awards from the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, McCammon Voice Competition at Fort Worth Opera, and New York Foundation for the Arts; in 2017, he received a top prize from the Wagner Society of New York.

Daniela Valtová Kosinová is a graduate of Prague’s Academy of Performing Arts, and since 2006 has been solo organist and principal keyboard player of the Prague Symphony Orchestra (FOK). Her studies also included a year at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg. She was a prizewinner and laureate of the 2002 Brno International Organ Competition.

Since making her 2007 concert debut at the Gewandhaus in Leipzig, Ms. Kosinová has collaborated regularly with Czech and international ensembles that include the Symfonieorkest Vlaanderen, Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, and Prague Philharmonic Choir. She is a frequent guest of the Czech Philharmonic, with which she has performed Janáček’s Glagolitic Mass on tour to the Kennedy Center in Washington, Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, Vienna’s Musikverein, and London’s Barbican Centre. Festival appearances include Beethovenfest Bonn, Prague Spring, Smetana’s Litomyšl, and Janáček International Music Festival.

Co-founder of a concert program titled Music Between the Words, Ms. Valtová Kosinová also devotes herself to teaching and composing. In 2010, she released a jazz album of her own music titled Meeting Point, after which she appeared at international jazz festivals.

The Prague Philharmonic Choir (PPC) was founded in 1935 by choirmaster and teacher Jan Kühn. Now in its 90th season, it is the oldest professional choir in the Czech Republic. The choir is celebrated beyond Czech borders, especially for its interpretations of oratorios and cantatas. Lukáš Vasilek became principal conductor and artistic director in 2007, and he is joined by Lukáš Kozubík as the choir’s second main choirmaster.

Under Mr. Vasilek, the choir has built its reputation as a highly respected performing partner of leading international orchestras. At home, the ensemble collaborates regularly with the Czech Philharmonic and, for its own choral concerts, with the Prague Philharmonia. Internationally, the PPC has worked with the Berliner Philharmoniker, Dresden Philharmonic, Vienna Symphony, and NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, and has collaborated with top conductors who include Semyon Bychkov, Christoph Eschenbach, Jakub Hrůša, Sir Simon Rattle, and Michael Sanderling. The choir also regularly appears at the Czech Republic’s most renowned festivals, such as Smetana’s Litomyšl, Prague Spring, and Dvořák Prague. It has served as choir in residence at the Bregenz Festival since 2010.

This season, the PPC presents programs focused on demanding and lesser-known compositions of the choral repertoire, including both a capella and instrumental works; makes its BBC Proms debut with the Czech Philharmonic; performs at home with orchestras based in Prague as well as on tour in Dresden and Hong Kong; and appears at the Lucerne and Bregenz festivals.

Each season, the PPC presents a cycle of educational concerts for children, both for school groups and for families. The Prague Philharmonic Choir Academy gives students the opportunity to gain real-life experience as part of a professional ensemble, participating in large-scale projects and learning from collaborations with leading artists.

This season marks Lukáš Vasilek’s 17th as the PPC’s principal conductor and artistic director. Whether exploring a cappella repertoire or larger cantatas and oratorios with instruments, Mr. Vasilek brings his innate knowledge and understanding of choral music to everything he does. Together with the PPC, he regularly collaborates with leading Czech and international orchestras and conductors, and they have received acclaim for their outstanding interpretations of choral works by Mahler, Dvořák, and Janáček, as well as Britten’s War Requiem and Poulenc’s Stabat mater. No stranger to less-conventional programming, Mr. Vasilek has also presented jazz and spirituals with the PPC.

Mr. Vasilek studied conducting at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague and musicology at Charles University. His first experience of choral singing dates to his time as a member of the boys’ choir Boni pueri, and he later became the choirmaster of the Foerster Female Chamber Choir and Prague National Theatre Choir. In 2022, he was a guest of the French chamber choir Accentus. In addition to the PPC, he works with vocal ensemble Martinů Voices—which he founded in 2010 and which focuses on chamber works from the 19th to 21st centuries—and teaches choir conducting at the Academy of Performing Arts.

Mr. Vasilek’s choral and orchestral conducting can be heard on numerous discs from labels such as Decca Classics and Supraphon. Most recently, his recordings of works by Bohuslav Martinů have been recognized internationally with awards from Gramophone, BBC Music Magazine,
and Diapason.