Dvořák Prague Festival • Marcon, Kožená & Czech Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra

Like on many past occasions, Magdalena Kožená is returning to her homeland with her husband, Sir Simon Rattle. Kožená, a graduate of the Brno Conservatoire and of the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava, came to worldwide attention thanks in part to victory at the International Mozart Competition in 1995; four years later she signed an exclusive contract with the label Deutsche Grammophon, for which she has released many award-winning recordings (Gramophone Award, Echo Klassik, Diapason d’Or etc.). She divides her performing activities between recitals, concert appearances, and operatic roles including regular guest appearances at New York’s Metropolitan Opera. She also performs in such non-classical genres as swing and flamenco. Her classical repertoire is of remarkable breadth, ranging from the baroque era and collaborations with ensembles specialising in early music to the classical and romantic repertoire, in which she has won fame in part as a proponent of Czech music, and onwards to the music of today.

He has been concertmaster of the Czech Philharmonic for more than a decade, has been performing as a soloist since the age of twelve, and also devotes himself to chamber music as a member of The Trio: the young cellist Václav Petr has established himself as one of the most successful artists of his generation.

He learned the basics of cello playing from Mirek Škampa at the Jan Neruda School in Prague, studied under Daniel Veis at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, and then graduated under Michal Kaňka. He further perfected his playing under the guidance of Wolfgang Boettcher at the Universität der Künste in Berlin and participated in a number of international masterclasses in Kronberg, Hamburg, Vaduz, Bonn, and Baden-Baden. He has also achieved a remarkable number of competition successes since childhood (Prague Junior Note, International Cello Competition in Liezen, Austria, Talents of Europe, Concertino Praga) and gradually worked his way up to the most prestigious European competitions (semi-finalist in the Grand Prix Emanuel Feuermann competition, winner of the Prague Spring competition).

At the age of 24, he won an audition for the Czech Philharmonic, becoming one of the youngest concertmasters in the orchestra’s history. He has also performed several times as a soloist with the Czech Philharmonic, including in 2024 at the Dvořák Prague Festival, where he played the world premiere of Petr Wajsar’s Concerto for cello under the baton of Ingo Metzmacher. He has also performed as a soloist with the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Prague Philharmonia, the Janáček Philharmonic Orchestra Ostrava, and the Baden-Baden Philharmonie.

Václav Petr has also enjoyed great success as a chamber musician. Between 2009 and 2020, he was a member of the Josef Suk Piano Quartet, with which he won first prizes in the chamber ensemble competition in Val Tidone, Italy, the Salieri-Zinetti chamber ensemble competition, and one of the most prestigious competitions for chamber ensembles with piano, the Premio Trio di Trieste. In 2019, together with Jiří Vodička, concertmaster of the Czech Philharmonic, and pianist Martin Kasík, he founded the Czech Philharmonic Piano Trio, later renamed The Trio. In 2020, they recorded Bohuslav Martinů’s Bergerettes in period costumes and won an international competition in Vienna.

In the winter of 2026, Václav Petr performed Beethoven’s Triple Concerto for Violin, Cello, and Piano together with violinist Jan Fišer and pianist Karolina Pancernaite, accompanied by the Czech Philharmonic conducted by Giovanni Antonini. Critics praised his “brightness, wonderful articulation, and silvery tone.”

Václav Petr plays a master instrument from the workshop of Giovanni Battista Guadagnini, a Teschenmacher model from 1757, on loan from a private collection.

Ivan Vokáč has entered his second season with the Czech Philharmonic as concert master of the cello section. He has collaborated with the orchestra for over a decade, including back in 2017, performing in Krzysztof Penderecki’s Concerto Grosso for Three Cellos and Orchestra. Yet he does not appear as a soloist frequently. 

Petr Vokáč has garnered numerous international accolades. He has won first prizes at the Cello Competition in Liezen, the Dotzauer Competition in Dresden, the Bohuslav Martinů Competition in Prague and the Leoš Janáček Competition in Brno. In 2006, he and the violinist Jakub Junek became overall winners at Concertino Praga; in 2012, he advanced to the semi-final of the Prague Spring Competition, thus being the most successful Czech participant. Moreover, he has received awards as a chamber player, including in the Johannes Brahms Wettbewerb in Pörtschach, first as a member of Taras Piano Trio and later with Lobkowicz Trio, which whom he has performed up to the present day. The latter ensemble, made up of Ivan Vokáč, Jan Mráček and Lukáš Klánský, has also won the 2017 Czech Chamber Music Society Award. 

His repertoire is wide-ranging, encompassing several genres. “The classical music performance principles can be perfectly applied in rock, jazz, popular and film music,” says the young cellist. He has closely collaborated with the Cello Republic ensemble (formerly Prague Cello Quartet), who present in concert their own arrangements of classical pieces, as well as non-classical music, enthralling audiences in the Czech Republic and beyond, including within regular tours of Japan. What’s more, Ivan Vokáč plays the piano with Escualo Quintet, focused on authentic performance of Argentine tango. 

Vokáč studied the cello and the piano. Whereas he reserved the former for classical music, the latter satisfied his passion for jazz. Yet neither of the two instruments kindled his early love of music. “As a child, I was fascinated by the double-bass, so much so that whenever it appeared on TV, I’d stand a metre away from the screen and stare spellbound. And when I then got a violin, I would never place it beneath my neck, but lean the instrument against the bed and play it the way the double-bass is played. But try giving a double-bass to a four-year-old boy…,” Vokáč recalls. He would replace the violin with the cello, which he believed would ultimately lead him to the double-bass, yet that would not come to pass. Vokáč would remain faithful to the cello. After taking private lessons from Oldřich Kavale, he studied the instrument at the Prague Conservatory and the Academy of Performing Arts (under the guidance of Miroslav Petráš), and he also attended masterclasses given by renowned cellists (Steven Isserlis, Boris Pergamenshikov, etc.). Ivan Vokáč was subsequently invited to festivals at home and abroad, began working with Czech Radio and Czech Television, before being engaged at the Czech Philharmonic.