Advent Concert III • Jan Fišer

Czech Philharmonic concertmaster Jan Fišer was born into a musical family. He exhibited his obvious musical talent from an early age, winning many competitions (Kocian Violin Competition, Concertino Praga, UNESCO Tribune of Young Musicians, Beethoven’s Hradec etc.).

He began playing the violin under the guidance of Hana Metelková and later studied at the Prague Conservatory with Jaroslav Foltýn. He went through the famed summer program at the Meadowmount School of Music three times, where he met his future teacher, Andrés J. Cárdenes, concertmaster of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. It was in this distinguished professor’s class that Jan Fišer graduated from Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Music in Pittsburgh in 2003. He furthered his musical education at numerous masterclasses led by, for example, Pinchas Zukerman, Gil Shaham, and Joseph Silverstein.

Just as he was deciding whether to remain in the USA, the Prague Philharmonia announced an audition for the position of concertmaster. Fišer won the audition and stayed with the orchestra for sixteen years—until 2020, when he moved to the same position with the Czech Philharmonic, where he remains today. He has appeared as a guest concertmaster with the Bamberg Symphony, the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern, and the BBC Symphony Orchestra. He also serves as artistic director of the Czech Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra.

As a soloist, he has performed for audiences in Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Slovenia, Italy, France, and Poland, as well as in Japan. He has also participated in major music festivals (the Pau Casals International Music Festival in Spain, Murten Classics in Switzerland, and the Brevard Music Festival in the USA). He also performs with Czech orchestras, including the Prague Philharmonia, the Janáček Philharmonic Ostrava, and the Czech Philharmonic, with whom he performed Beethoven’s Triple Concerto for Violin, Cello, and Piano alongside Václav Petr and Karolina Pancernaite in early 2026.

In addition to his extensive orchestral and solo activities, he is also dedicated to chamber music—together with pianist Ivo Kahánek and cellist Tomáš Jamník, he forms the Dvořák Trio, which ranks among the leading Czech chamber ensembles and has achieved success in renowned venues such as the Berlin Philharmonie and the Elbphilharmonie.

Jan Fišer also regularly records for television and radio, and as one of five laureates, he contributed to the CD A Tribute to Jaroslav Kocian for the 40th anniversary of the Kocian International Violin Competition. He is also active as an educator—serving as a mentor at the MenART scholarship academy and regularly teaching at music courses, including the Ševčík Academy in Horažďovice and the Telč Music Academy.

He plays a French violin from the early 19th century attributed to the luthier François-Louis Pique.

He studied at the Prague Conservatory with Professor Jaroslav Kulhan and graduated from the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague in Professor Josef Chuchro’s class. He has attended masterclass courses with Miloš Mlejnik in Klagenfurt (Austria) and Raphael Wallfisch in London. He played in the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra in 1998–2010 and has taught at the Jaroslav Ježek Conservatory in Prague since 2016.

He likes chamber (and other) music but considers jazz to be a vital counterweight to classical music. With various jazz ensembles, he can alternate the cello and bass guitar. His band the Night Sight has been playing with more or less unchanged line-up since 2002, mainly focusing on their own compositions. They have already recorded six CDs.

Since 2008, he has been collaborating with jazz singer Jana Koubková in her quartet and has recorded live CD Jana Koubková 65 and studio recordings Mýdlové bubliny (Soap Bubbles) and A tak si jdu... (And so I Go...)

In 2012, he recorded a CD featuring poems by Czech poet Bohuslav Reynek put into music together with Transitus Irregularis ensemble and guitarist Miroslav Nosek. The Petrkov publishing house released the recording with a book of poems and graphics by Reynek under the title Pod prahem svítá.

He likes various music genres and his playlist includes Lenka Dusilová, Zuzana Navarová, Suzanne Vega, Jan Spálený, Dežo Ursiny, Vladimír Mišík, Sting, Eric Clapton, classical composer Bohuslav Martinů, Leszek Możdżer, Lars Danielsson, Herbie Hancock, Jimi Hendrix and many others.

Barbora Trnčíková (*1995) has been dedicated to playing the recorder and piano since childhood. She began studying the oboe with Pavel Tylšar at the Jan Neruda Grammar School. After completing secondary education, she continued her studies at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (HAMU) under the guidance of Liběna Séquardtová, where she is currently a doctoral scholarship holder.

During her studies, she spent a year on exchange at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique in Lyon, France, and at the Royal College of Music in London. She won first prize and the overall winner’s title at the Pro Bohemia Ostrava 2016 competition, as well as at the international competition in Chieri, Italy (2013), among others. She has been a member of the prestigious Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester and the European Union Youth Orchestra (EUYO).

As a soloist, she has performed with the Prague Symphony Orchestra FOK, PKF – Prague Philharmonia, and the Brno Philharmonic. She completed the scholarship program of the Academy of Chamber Music and was included on the Young Artists’ List of the Czech Music Fund Foundation. She is a founding member of the chamber ensembles Slavic Trio and Alinde Quintet; the latter was this year’s laureate of the Carl Nielsen International Chamber Music Competition in Copenhagen.

After completing orchestral academies with the PKF – Prague Philharmonia and the Czech Philharmonic, she joined the oboe section of the National Theatre Orchestra in Prague. Since 2020, she has served as Principal Oboist of the Brno Philharmonic.

Born in Netolice (South Bohemia) in 1976, Vladislav Borovka began to play oboe under the direction of Jan Nováček there. 1990–1996 he was studying at Prague Conservatoire under the guidance of Bedřich Vobořil. During this period, he was awarded with several prizes such as Concertino Praga – National Award Second Prize and Competition of Conservatoires in Kroměříž Second Prize. 1996–2002 he was studying at Music Academy of Performing Arts in Prague in the class of Jiří Mihule. In 1998, he went through three-month scholarship at The Toho Gakuen Orchestra Academy in Toyama (Japan). In 2001, he became the Laureate of the Prague Spring International Music Competition winning the Third Prize and went to Paris to study on school year at Conservatoire of Paul Dukas in the class of Jean-Louis Capezzali. He attended numerous master classes with top musicians and professors.

In the Czech Republic, he has been the member of the Prague Philharmonia since its foundation in 1994, teaches on the Prague Conservatory and cooperates with The Czech Nonet and Prague Wind Ensemble. As a soloist, he has been playing with many orchestras: Prague Philharmonia, Prague Chamber Orchestra, Košice State Philharmonic Orchestra etc.

Since january 2011 he has been the member of the Czech Philharmonic.

He studied at the Brno Conservatory with Professor Jiří Nykodým and the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague with professors Jiří Seidl and František Herman.

He won in a number of interpretation competitions (Kroměříž 1994, Chomutov 1995, Olomouc 2000) and received the laureate award at the Prague Spring International Competition 2002. With the bassoon quartet Fagotti Brunenses he took the 2^nd prize at the International Bassoon Quartet Competition Potsdam (Germany) in 1995.

He became the solo bassoonist of the Brno Philharmonic Orchestra in 1993 and of the newly established PKF – Prague Philharmonia in 1994. He played the Czech premiers of bassoon concertos by French composers André Jolivet (1999) and Jean Françaix (2000) and Czech composer Martin Hybler (2008). As a soloist, he has performed with top Czech orchestras, including the Czech Philharmonic, PKF – Prague Philharmonia, Brno Philharmonic Orchestra, Pardubice Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra, Plzeň Philharmonic Orchestra and others.

He taught at the Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Brno in 2003–2007, at the summer music academy Prag – Wien – Budapest in Semmering (Austria) in 2003–2013 and has been teaching at the Prague Conservatory since 2007.

He founded the International Music Festival Haná. He regularly takes part in recording projects with French bassoonist and conductor Pascal Gallois. As a performer, he focuses on 20^th century and contemporary music.

In 2013, he co-founded the Czech Double Reed Society with his Czech Philharmonic colleagues and the Summer Bassoon Academy in Rataje nad Sázavou (Czech Republic). He takes part in the project of the Czech Double Reed Symposium and series of educational concerts for primary and music schools aimed at promoting the bassoon. He collaborates with the National Institute for Further Education and organises courses for music school teachers.

He arranges music for double reed ensemble (made of oboes and bassoons) and various chamber ensembles. He also composes educational pieces for bassoon and other instruments.

He likes all music genres, in accordance with the famous words that “When music is done with truth, passion and love, it is always good”. From among the many composers he likes, Czech authors Antonín Dvořák, Leoš Janáček and Bohuslav Martinů stand out.