PROGRAM OF JANÁČEK AND LUHAČOVICE FESTIVAL

Monday 15/7/2013

Tuesday 16/7/2013

The Baborák Ensemble was established in 2001. The artistic head of the ensemble is horn player and conductor Radek Baborák. Its members are young generation soloists - chamber players of leading Czech ensembles and orchestras. The ensemble brings together musicians from the Czech Republic and from the orchestras where Baborák performed (Czech and Munich Philharmonic Orchestra, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra), other friends of his and other musicians - from string quartets (Wihan, Epoque, etc.), from ensembles such as the Czech Nonet, Berliner philharmonische Solisten, and various other musicians, most of whom are laureates of international competitions. The ensemble's repertory comprises complete programmes and projects of Baroque and Classicism, a little Romanticism, and many pieces from the 20th century, including compositions that were written for, dedicated to or adapted directly for the ensemble. The Baborák Ensemble has performed at festivals such as Mitte Europa, Concentus Moraviae and the Prague Spring. They have toured Germany, Japan and the Czech Republic.

Wednesday 17/7/2013

Sophia Jaffé is popular for her transparent technique, inward playing and deep emotional message. She was born in Germany in 1980 and started playing the violin when she was five. She first performed in public in the hall of the Berlin Philharmonic when she was seven years old, accompanied on the piano by Gerd Albrecht. In 1994 she won her first prize, in the German nationwide competition called "Jugend Musiziert". From 1995 - 1998 she improved her skills with Professor Herman Krebbers in Amsterdam. In 1998 she began to attend the Berlin Music Academy of Hanns Eisler, where she gained more experience by studying with Professor Stephan Picard. She graduated in 2006 with a Beethoven concert.

Sophia Jaffé has won many significant awards, e.g. at the Gerhard-Taschner-Wettbewerb competition at the Berlin academy (2003), at the Leopold Mozart International Competition in Augsburg (2003), at the International Competition in Geneva (2004), at the German International Competition in Berlin (2005) and at the Queen Elizabeth Competition in Brussels (2005).

She has already given a number of successful recitals and concerts with major ensembles, not only in her home country, but also in the Czech Republic and abroad - e.g. Rundfunk-Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Konzerthaus Orchester Berlin, the Philharmonic Orchestra in Baden-Baden, Liege and Armenia, Münchner Kammerorchester, Beethoven Orchester Bonn, SWR Kaiserslautern, Rundfunkorchester des Bayrischen Rundfunks, Orchester des Staatstheaters Darmstadt, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the Academic Philharmonic Orchestra of Saint Petersburg, the Symphonic Orchestra in Johannesburg, the National Symphonic Orchestra of Belgium, the Symphonic Orchestra of the Czech Republic, the Janáček Philharmonic Orchestra in Ostrava and the Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra in Pardubice). She has also performed at international European festivals: Bachfest Leipzig, Rheingau Musikfestival, Ludwigsburger Schlossfestspiele, the International Music Festival Brno, Prague Spring, the Central-European Music Festival, and has given performances in the United States and in Chile.

Thursday 18/7/2013

Jiří Stivín has been focussing on the performance of Pre-Classicist on the fipple flute since 1975. He earlier studied camerawork at the Film Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, but after graduating he started to focus exclusively on music. He studied at the Royal Academy of Music in London and later studied composition at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. Jiří Stivín is a master of all types of cross and fipple flutes. Besides Pre-Classicist music he focuses on jazz, composition and improvised New Music, playing the saxophone, clarinet, fipple flute, cross flute and various kinds of pipes. As a soloist, he cooperates with renowned ensembles (Virtuosi di Praga, the Prague Symphonic Orchestra, the Slovakian Chamber Orchestra, the Prague Madrigal Performers, Due Boemi, the Suk Chamber Orchestra, the Talich Quartet, etc.). He leads his own ensembles Collegium Quodlibet and Jiří Stivín and Co Jazz Quartet. For over ten years he has given a cycle of concerts called "The Flutes of All Kinds" in every concert season of the Prague Symphonic Orchestra.

Beladona Quartet - a quartet of female musicians who, besides classical music, present arrangements of famous musical pieces. These four musicians are graduates of the Janáček Academy of Performing Arts in Brno; the ensemble head, violoncello player Pavla Jahodová, also studied at the High School of Music in Weimar, Germany. The quartet performs at concerts of the Brno Philharmonic Orchestra, the Brno National Theatre and the Brno Municipal Theatre. Besides playing in orchestras, the members of the quartet devote themselves to classical as well as popular chamber music.

Friday 19/7/2013

Miroslav Dvorský studied singing at the Conservatory and Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava under the supervision of Ida Černecká and later studied with Luciano Silvestri at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan. He has won several singing competitions and gained a permanent engagement in the opera of the Slovak National Theatre in Bratislava. His first foreign guest performances took him to opera houses in Munich, Stuttgart, Leipzig, Hannover, Dusseldorf, Zurich and other towns and cities. He performed in Rusalka by Antonín Dvořák at the Opéra National in Paris. He also sang Stabat Mater by Antonín Dvořák with the Bamberger Symphoniker, La traviata by Verdi at the Staatsoper in Vienna, and performed in Madame Butterfly by Puccini at the Staatsoper in Dresden. Recent achievements include Cavaradossi (Puccini: Tosca) at the San Francisco Opera conducted by Donald Runniclese, Manrico (Verdi: Troubadour) with Carlo Rizzi at the Teatro Comunale in Bologna; he has also performed at the Staatsoper in Berlin (Puccini: la Boheme), Staatsoper in Vienna (Verdi: Nabucco, Simon Boccanegra), Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa (Tosca), the National Theatre in Tokyo (Verdi: Macbeth), Maggio Musicale Fiorentino (la Boheme, Macbeth, Simon Boccanegra), and at many other places.

In the season of 2006/2007 he performed in London (Madame Butterfly), as Laca (Janáček: Její pastorkyňa) he made his debut in Hamburg and at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, and debuted at the Teatro Regio in Torino as the Prince in Rusalka. In Autumn 2007 he performed in Madame Butterfly at the Teatro Municipal in Santiago de Chile and learned the role of Don José in the new production of Carmen at the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia in Valencia (conductor Lorin Maazel). During the "Puccini" year of 2008, he performed in the role of Luigi in Puccini´s Il tabarro at La Scala in Milan (conductor Riccardo Chailly). Miroslav Dvorský is also a frequent guest on concert stages and in recording studios (Supraphon, Opus, Naxos, Discover). He also does television and radio work.