Czech Philharmonic • Orchestra Rehearsal... This Time with a Choir

Petr Altrichter was raised in a musical family, and he played musical instruments from a young age. Having graduated from the conservatory in Ostrava as a French horn player and conductor, he continued his studies at the Janáček Academy of the Performing Arts in Brno in the fields of orchestral conducting and choral conducting. He attracted international attention in 1976, when he earned the title of laureate and a special prize from the jury at the renowned conducting competition in Besançon, France. On the basis of that prize, he became Václav Neumann’s assistant conductor with the Czech Philharmonic, and he started his own artistic career. Not long after that, he began to receive invitations to conduct orchestras abroad. After a period of activity with the Brno Philharmonic, in 1988 he became a conductor of the Prague Symphony Orchestra, and in 1990 he became its principal conductor.

In 1993, he became the music director of the Southwest German Philharmonic Orchestra of Constance, and four years later he was appointed chief conductor of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic. He made an appearance with that orchestra in 2000 at the BBC Proms at London’s Royal Albert Hall, and he made a number of recordings for the orchestra’s own label – RLPO Live. In 2001 Altrichter was invited to take the helm of the Brno Philharmonic, and he remained there for seven years. He has guest conducted major orchestras abroad, including Japan’s NHK Symphony Orchestra, Berlin Symphony Orchestra, Warsaw Philharmonic, Latvian National Symphony Orchestra in Riga, Gran Canaria Philharmonic Orchestra, Luxembourg Philharmonic Orchestra, Netherlands Philharmonic, and Royal Danish Orchestra in Copenhagen. In the United Kingdom he has collaborated with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, and the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

Since 2015, he has toured with the Czech Philharmonic to Germany, China, South Korea, Japan, and Taiwan. He is a regular conductor for the Czech Philharmonic’s key educational projects—“Orchestra Rehearsal” and the Joint orchestra of Music School Pupils and the Czech Philharmonic Musicians.

Lukáš Vasilek studied conducting and musicology. Since 2007, he has been the chief choirmaster of the Prague Philharmonic Choir (PPC). Most of his artistic work with them involves rehearsing and performing a cappella repertoire and preparing them to perform in large-scale cantatas, oratorios, and operatic projects in collaboration with world-famous conductors and orchestras (Vienna Symphony Orchestra, Czech Philharmonic, Israel Philharmonic, Kyiv Symphony Orchestra, etc.).

In addition to leading the PPC, he is active in a wide range of artistic projects, most notably in collaboration with the vocal ensemble Martinů Voices, which he founded in 2010. As a conductor and choirmaster, he appears on numerous recordings for major international labels, including Decca Classics and Supraphon. In recent years, he has focused systematically on recording the choral music of Bohuslav Martinů. His recordings have received extraordinary worldwie acclaim and have earned awards from prestigious publications such as Gramophone, BBC Music Magazine, and Diapason.

Marek Eben is perhaps best known as a television presenter. He serves as the host of the popular StarDance competition and has been one of the key figures of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival since 1996. A graduate of the Music and Drama Department at the Prague Conservatoire, Eben is also an accomplished musician.
The son of the late organist and composer Petr Eben, he continues his father’s artistic legacy in his own distinctive way as the sole songwriter for The Eben Brothers, a band that released its sixth album, Co my víme, at the start of the 2023/2024 academic year.
Eben’s work as a composer extends beyond his own ensemble. He has written music for the films Bizon and Hele on letí, as well as for the television series Poste restante. He has also composed music and lyrics for around twenty stage productions, including Othello at Studio Ypsilon and A Winter’s Tale at the National Theatre.
On Czech Television, in addition to StarDance, Eben has appeared in the quiz show The Treasure of Agnes of Bohemia, and his long-running talk show Na plovárně has become a beloved classic. He has twice been the overall winner of the TýTý Award, formerly presented to the most popular television personalities.

The Prague Philharmonic Choir, founded in 1935 by its choirmaster Jan Kühn, is the oldest professional choir of mixed voices in the Czech Republic. Lukáš Vasilek serves as chief choirmaster and artistic director, with Lukáš Kozubík as associate choirmaster. The choir has won particular acclaim for its interpretations of the oratorio and cantata repertoire, which it performs with the worldʼs leading orchestras. In this country, it collaborates regularly with the Czech Philharmonic and the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra. As choir-in-residence at Austriaʼs Bregenz Festival, it is also active in opera. It regularly presents its own choral concerts, with programmes devoted primarily to demanding and rarely performed works from the choral repertoire, while also engaging in a wide range of educational projects. For students of vocal performance, the choir organises the Prague Philharmonic Choir Academy in honour of Soňa Červená, while younger children are served by a series of educational concerts. The choir received a Classic Prague Award in 2018 and the Antonín Dvořák Prize in 2022.