Czech Chamber Music Society • Zemlinsky Quartet

Since his victory at the 2014 ARD competition and winning the 2016 Crédit Suisse Young Artist Award, Simone Rubino has been winning over an enthusiastic audience as a soloist (including appearance with the Vienna Philharmonic and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra). He has played under the baton of such conductors Zubin Mehta, Manfred Honeck, and Tan Dun and in collaboration with artists including the Labèque sisters and Beatrice Rana. As a regular guest at such festivals as the Lucerne Festival, the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, and La Folle Journée, Rubino has brough percussion from the periphery to the centre of the classical, contemporary, and even Baroque music scene.

The key idea for his creative process is building bridges, whether between generations, styles, or thoughts. Just a glance at his discography shows that his diverse and daring experiments with music ranging from Bach to Piazzolla and on to John Cage are based on the principle of working with opposites (old and new, sacred and secular, “popular” and “posh”). He is particularly interested in encounters and confrontations between generations, and in particular the values and challenges that represent a dialog between the old and the modern, parents and children, or the classics and the present day. This is one of the ways he is bringing the present generation into concert halls.

He also had the opportunity to develop his experimentation along these lines thanks to a scholarship from the Borletti-Buitoni Trust, which also led to commissions of several new works. The first of them is the opera Il Ritmo della Terra (The Rhythm of the Earth, 2020), created jointly with Lamberto Curtoni during the first Covid lockdown, in which Simone Rubino becomes a spokesman of past humanity through the words of the poet Mariangela Gualtieri, who, from behind windows, in isolation, rediscovers nature (and herself), thus creating the foundations of future humanity. Il Ritmo della Terra requires (like the early version of the interdisciplinary project based on motifs from The Little Prince by Saint-Exupéry) that the performer not only plays percussion instruments, but also uses his voice on stage.

He is a native of Turin, where he studied at the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatoire under Riccardo Balbinutti. He later moved to Munich to study under Peter Sadlo. Since 2019, he has been employed in the percussion department of the Haute école de musique de Lausanne, and he is also a guest professor at the Universität der Künste in Berlin.

The German mezzo-soprano Franziska Rabl discovered her love of music at an early age. She played the violin, viola, and French horn in various orchestras and chamber ensembles at home and abroad and studied singing under Pamela Coburn, Marilyn Schmiege, Kurt Widmer, and Dietrich Schneider.

A laureate of the International Summer Academy Mozarteum and the Jan Kiepura Competition, she began her singing career at the International Opera Studio of the Zurich Opera. She was subsequently engaged at Theater Dortmund, where from 2005 to 2008 she was a resident soloist and sang major roles for her voice type, including Hänsel (Hänsel und Gretel), Dorabella (Così fan tutte), Muse/Nicklausse (Les Contes d’Hoffmann), Carmen, and Charlotte (Werther). There she also encountered Wagner’s cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen for the first time (Flosshilde, Fricka, and Siegrune). In addition to German theatres such as the National Theatres in Mannheim and Weimar, the Landestheater Niederbayern, and the Leipzig Opera, she also appeared abroad (Montpellier, Lyon, Landestheater Linz). After concluding her engagement in Dortmund, she returned for several years to her native Munich to work as a soloist at the Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz. There she sang roles including Orlofsky (Die Fledermaus) and Isabella (L’italiana in Algeri), Clarice (The Love for Three Oranges), and Meg Page (Falstaff) and worked on roles such as Brangäne (Tristan und Isolde) and Elvira (Don Giovanni). At the same time, she expanded her repertoire to include, in her own words, one of the most beautiful bel canto roles: Bellini’s Romeo (I Capuleti e i Montecchi).

Besides her operatic engagements, she is also devoted to the concert repertoire, performing, for example, with the West German Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Staatskapelle Halle, and the Baden-Württemberg Philharmonic. She performs major works of sacred music such as Handel’s Messiah, Bach’s Christmas Oratorio (Weihnachtsoratorium) and passion settings, and Mozart’s Requiem. She also explores a completely different branch of sacred music with the gospel ensemble Modulamina. Her extensive repertoire is complemented by regular recitals ranging from Dowland to Cole Porter.

František Souček violin
Petr Střížek violin
Petr Holman viola
Vladimír Fortin cello

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 2016/2017 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.

Having studied at the Brno Conservatory under Lubomír Bartoň, Jan Mach graduated from the Academy of Performing Art in Prague, where his teachers were Vlastimil Mareš and Jiří Hlaváč, and where he is himself now teaching. He has taken part in masterclasses in Semmering (Austria), Telč (Czech Republic), and Aix en Provence (France), and he made a study visit to Karlsruhe (Germany), where his teachers were Otto Kronthaler and Wolfgang Meyer. He reached the finals of the competition Jeunesses Musicales Romania and enjoyed success at the ARD International Music Competition in Munich in 2003. He played in the orchestra of the F. X. Šalda Theatre in Liberec (northern Bohemia) and briefly in orchestra of the Prague State Opera, and he was a member of the Prague Symphony Orchestra for 10 years. He has been a member of the Czech Philharmonic clarinet section since 2018 and has since became the section leader. As a soloist, he has collaborated with the Munich Chamber Orchestra and the Polish INTER>Camerata. He premiered and recorded Jindřich Feld’s Clarinet Quintet with the Pražák Quartet, and he often performs with the Zemlinsky Quartet, with which he has recorded works by F. V. Kramář. In 2003, he formed the Trio Arundo with oboist Jan Souček and bassoonist Václav Vonášek, with whom he later earned the Czech Chamber Music Society Prize. He plays the bass clarinet in the clarinet ensemble Five Star Quartet with his colleagues from the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague.

Stanislav Masaryk has been playing the trumpet since the age of nine. Having studied under Michal Jánoš at the Bratislava Conservatory, he furthered his studies at the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava under Rastislav Suchan. He took first prize at the Slovak Conservatories Competition in Košice in 2012 and was awarded first prize and the title of the overall winner at the 2017 Brno International Competition for Wind Instruments in a field of more than 60 trumpet players from the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, and Hungary. He joined the jazz orchestra Bratislava Hot Serenaders in 2009. From 2012 to 2015, he was a member of the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra, then in 2017 and 2018 he played first trumpet in the National Theatre Opera Orchestra in Prague. He has also played first trumpet with Slovak National Theatre Opera Orchestra. He became the principal trumpet player of the Czech Philharmonic in 2020. He also occasionally plays as a guest with the Slovak Philharmonic. He has performed as a soloist with the Slovak Philharmonic, the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Bohdan Warchal Slovak Chamber Orchestra, the Košice State Philharmonic, and Cappella Istropolitana.

Lukáš Moťka studied at the Pavel Josef Vejvanovský Conservatory in Kroměříž, Czech Republic, under Rudolf Beran, earned a Bachelor’s Degree at the Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Brno under Jaroslav Kummer, and completed his Master’s Degree studies at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague under Jiří Sušický, then he furthered his education at Konservatorium Privatuniversität Wien under Gabriel Madas. He won first prize and was named the overall winner of the Czech Conservatories Competition and was the winner of the International Brass Competition in Brno. He is a laureate of the Prague Spring International Competition. He played in the orchestra of the Moravian Theatre in Olomouc for two seasons, and was the principal trombonist of the Brno National Theatre Orchestra for four seasons. He currently is the principal trombonist of the Czech Philharmonic, and he teaches at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague while serving as an instructor at music courses both in the Czech Republic and abroad. He has made solo appearances with the Czech Philharmonic, the Brno Philharmonic Orchestra, the Prague Chamber Orchestra, and the Vogtland Philharmonie Greiz/Reichenbach. He plays chamber music and jazz and has premiered pieces by contemporary composers including Juraj Filas, Ladislav Kubík and Pavel Slezák.

Karel Malimánek comes from a family of folk musicians, and his father played a key role in his choice of the tuba as his instrument. At the Prague Conservatoire he studied under Václav Hoza, who was also his teacher when he enrolled at the Academy of Performing Arts at the age of 37 because university-level tuba studies were not available until then. By that time, he had already been playing in the Czech Philharmonic for several years (since 1993), after having gained experience in the Film Symphony Orchestra under the baton of František Belfín, in the opera orchestra of Prague’s National Theatre, and in the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra. Besides orchestral playing, Karel Malimánek also performs with such chamber ensembles and jazz groups as the Czech Philharmonic Jazz Band and the Václav Kozel Big Band. He fondly remembers a performance with Wynton Marsalis. At present, he is also teaching at the Prague Conservatoire and the Academy of Performing Arts, and he takes part in organising tuba masterclasses held in Kaliště, Gustav Mahler’s birthplace.

Stanislav Gallin is a graduate of a musical grammar school in Saint Petersburg. From 2001 to 2007, he studied under Peter Toperczer at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. In 2004 he made a study visit to the Mozarteum in Salzburg under Peter Lang, and in 2012 he completed his doctoral studies at the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava under Elena Händler. He has also taken part in numerous masterclasses led by artists including Lazar Berman, Eugen Indjic, and Pierre Jasmin. Since 2009, he has been teaching at Prague’s Academy of Performing Arts. Stanislav Gallin is a founding member of the Orbis Trio, which is a laurate of four international competitions including one of the most prestigious—the International Chamber Music Competition in Hamburg, Germany. He has made solo appearances with orchestras including the Saint Petersburg Philharmonic, the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Prague Philharmonia, and the Bruno Walter Symphony Orchestra with such conductors as Alexey Anikanov, Tomáš Brauner, and Jakub Hrůša. He is also a sought-after chamber player and studio musician. He has appeared in concert not only in Russia and the Czech Republic, but also in other European countries, the USA, Asia, and Africa.

A native of Kolín, the flautist Jiří Skuhra graduated from the Prague Conservatoire, then he continued his studies at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague in the studio of Radomír Pivoda. Already as a student, he drew attention as a laureate of the Concertino Praga International Radio Competition for Young Musicians. Since 1993, he has been a member of one of the world’s oldest chamber ensembles, the Czech Nonet, with which his professional career has been closely associated—he has given concert performances in nearly every country of Europe, often at important international festivals, and he has toured overseas several times and has made numerous CD recordings. He has also performed chamber music with the Trio Sírius and the Prague Wind Harmony. He is an orchestral musician as well. He played in the orchestra of the Prague State Opera for four seasons, and he has been a member of the Prague Symphony Orchestra since 1999, where he now serves as the assistant principal flautist. The also takes part actively in the recording of film music. Jiří Skuhra is acclaimed for his technical precision and his refined tone colour, as is attested by his status as an official artist of Miyazawa Flutes, the maker of the 14-karat gold model he plays.