Czech Chamber Music Society • Zemlinsky Quartet

Founded in 1994, the Zemlinsky Quartet have pursued the illustrious Czech quartet tradition. They won the international string quartet competition in Bordeaux (2010), and became laureates at competitions in Banff, Canada, and London, where they also received the audience prize. Furthermore, the ensemble came first at Beethoven Hradec, New Talent Bratislava and the Bohuslav Martinů Foundation Competition. They received the Czech Chamber Music Society Award (2005) and the Alexander Zemlinsky Foundation Prize in Vienna (2009). In the 2016/17 season, the Zemlinsky Quartet were the Czech Chamber Music Society’s ensemble-in-residence. 

They have toured four continents, performing at venues of such renown as Wigmore Hall in London, Cité de la Musique in Paris, Library of Congress in Washington, DC, and the Seoul Arts Center. The ensemble’s repertoire encompasses over 350 works by Czech and other composers, including new contemporary pieces. In the wake of their first two CDs featuring Czech music, the Zemlinsky Quartet signed an exclusive contract with the French label Praga Digitals, for which they have to date recorded 19 albums, among them the complete Antonín Dvořák and Alexander Zemlinsky string quartets. Their 4-CD set comprising early Dvořák quartets received the prestigious Diapason d’Or. They have also made numerous recordings for Czech Radio (including all F. X. Richter’s quartets). 

During the time of their studies at the Prague Conservatory and the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, they were led by members of distinguished Czech ensembles (Prague, Talich, Kocian and Pražák Quartets). Later on, the ensemble studied with the legendary teacher Walter Levin, the founder, first violinist and guiding spirit of the LaSalle Quartet. From 2006 to 2011 the Zemlinsky Quartet members worked as tutors at the Musikakademie Basel, while between 2005 and 2010 they organised and taught at the International Music Academy in Plzeň. Within their tours, they have led masterclasses for musicians of all age categories. František Souček and Petr Holman also teach at the Prague Conservatory. 

The quartet bears the name of the Austrian composer, conductor and educator Alexander Zemlinsky (1871–1942), who during his 16-year tenure as music director at the Neues deutsches Theater significantly contributed to the development of Czech, German and Jewish culture in Prague. His four string quartets (with the second dedicated to Arnold Schönberg, his pupil and, later on, brother-in-law) are among the staples of the ensemble’s repertoire. Since 2005, the quartet have closely collaborated with the Alexander Zemlinsky Foundation in Vienna.

After attending the local music school in Jilemnice (north Bohemia), he studied at the Brno Conservatory with Professor Lubomír Bartoň and graduated from the Academy of Performing Art in Prague, where he attended the classes of Vlastimil Mareš and Jiří Hlaváč. He later also started teaching there. He has competed masterclass courses in Semmering (Austria), Telč (Czech Republic) and Aix en Provence (France) and a six-month study stay in Karlsruhe (Germany) with professors Otto Kronthaler and Wolfgang Meyer.

He joined the opera ensemble of the F. X. Šalda Theatre in Liberec (north Bohemia), later played in the State Opera in Prague and was a member of the Prague Symphony Orchestra for 10 years. In 1993, he won the 1^st prize at a competition in Kroměříž and later received the Leoš Janáček Foundation Award for the best conservatory graduate. He was in the final round of Jeunesses Musicales Romania and succeeded in the ARD International Music Competition in Munich in 2003. As a soloist, he collaborates with the Munich Chamber Orchestra, Inter Camerata and the Prague Symphony Orchestra. He premiered and recorded Jindřich Feld’s clarinet quintet with the Pražák Quartet and often performs with the Zemlinski Quartet with which he recorded the works by F. V. Kramář.

In 2003, he formed the Trio Arundo with oboist Jan Souček and bassoonist Václav Vonášek and later won the Czech Chamber Music Society Prize with them. He plays the bass clarinet in the clarinet ensemble Five Star Quartet with his colleagues from the Academy of Performing Arts. He had led masterclass courses in Žirovnice (Czech Republic), Vardø (Norway) and Wroclaw (Poland).

Born in Slovakia, Stanislav Masaryk (1993) has been playing the trumpet since the age of nine. As an exceptional student aged 13, he joined the class of JUDr. Michal Janoš at the Bratislava Conservatory and was enrolled there in the following year. He later continued at the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava with Mgr. art. Rastislav Suchan ArtD. He finished 2nd in the Slovak Conservatories Competition in 2009 and took the 1st prize in 2012. In 2015, he won the Yamaha Scholarship Award. He was awarded the 1st prize and the title of the overall winner at the International Competition for Wind Instruments Brno 2017 among more than 60 trumpet players from the Visegrad Four countries.

He joined the hot-jazz orchestra Bratislava Hot Serenaders (led by trumpeter Jurej Bartoš) in 2009. In 2012–2015, he was a member of the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra. In 2017 and 2018, he was the first trumpeter of the National Theatre Opera Orchestra in Prague. During that time, he started regularly collaborating with the Czech Philharmonic. He also occasionally plays as a guest in the Slovak Philharmonic and is currently the first trumpeter of the Slovak National Theatre Opera Orchestra.
As a soloist, he has performed with the Slovak Philharmonic, Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra, Slovak Chamber Orchestra of Bohdan Warchal, Košice State Philharmonic, Cappella Istropolitana, State Chamber Orchestra Žilina, the chamber as well as the symphony orchestra of the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava and the Slovak Youth Orchestra.

He has joined the Czech Philharmonic as the first trumpeter in September 2020.

He studied at the Pavel Josef Vejvanovský Conservatory in Kroměříž, Czech Republic, with Rudolf Beran, the Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts with Professor Jaroslav Kummer and the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague with Mgr. Jiří Sušický. On top of that, he complemented his education at Konservatorium Privatuniversität Wien with Gabriel Madas. He won the 1^st prize and was named the overall winner of the Czech Conservatories Competition as well as the International Brass Competition in Brno. He was among the semi-finalists of the Hungarofest Competition in Hungary, Lieksa Brass Week in Finland and ARD International Music Competition in Germany. He took the 3^rd prize at the Markneukirchen International Competition (Germany) and the 2^nd prize with the laureate title at the Prague Spring International Competition.

He played in the Moravian Theatre Olomouc Orchestra for two seasons and was the solo trombonist of the Brno National Theatre Orchestra for four seasons. He currently is the solo trombonist of the Czech Philharmonic, teaches at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague as well as many interpretation courses both in the Czech Republic and abroad.

He is a popular soloist and has performed with the Czech Philharmonic, Brno Philharmonic Orchestra, Prague Chamber Orchestra, Hradec Králové Philharmonic Orchestra, Karlovy Vary Symphony Orchestra, Pardubice Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra and Vogtland Philharmonie Greiz/Reichenbach. He plays chamber and jazz music (with the Czech Philharmonic Jazz Band) and has premiered pieces by contemporary composers, including Juraj Filas, Ladislav Kubík and Pavel Slezák.