Jitka Hosprová, the first Czech viola soloist, is world renowned for her art. In her albums, she presents gems of Czech violin literature and the classical modern world. She graduated from the Academy of Performing Artsin Prague, majoring in viola by doc. Jan Peruska and then collaborated with legendary Italian violist, Luigi Alberto Biancchi, who led her virtuoso mastery. As a soloist, she works alongside numerous international orchestras – the Vienna Radio Orchestra, orchestras Lorain, Belgian Philharmonic, Camerata Chile, the Czech Philharmonic, Prague Symphony Orchestra, French Chamber Orchestra, etc.
Jitka Hosprová is not only a soloist, but also chamber music artist. As a guest performs with leading Czech string quartets and, together with a harpist K. Englichová and flutist C. Janse (Lux.) created an exclusive trio called Bohemia Luxembourg. The soloist plays an Italian instrument from 1856 Andrea Postacchini and a Czech musical instrument Amati 1615 from the 2010 by Peter Zdrazil.
Ludmila Peterkova is the most famous Czech clarinet player. Soloist, teacher at the Prague Conservatory and moderator, she is a laureate of the Prague Spring 1991 competition, laureate of the Talent of the Year award, Harmony for the best recording of 2001 and others.
For the label Supraphon, with which she has worked already since 1993, she has recorded already 10 titles, the best selling was Playful Clarinet, which is full of well-known melodies. Her last CD(recorded with the Bennewitz quartet) includes compositions by Mozart, Rejcha and Kukal.
She has taught at the Prague Conservatory already since she was 27, performers from Italy, France, Poland, Korea, Japan and Egypt have passed through her hands. In Domazlice, West Bohemia, she also organises her own summer course of clarinet and chamber performance.
A musician of tremendous emotional power, depth and expressiveness,
Ivo Kahánek has gained his reputation as one of the most exciting pianists of his generation and is considered the best Czech contemporary pianist. He is recognised as one of the impressive Romantic pianists and also as a specialist in Czech piano music, possessing a rare and special gift of creating an immediate and compelling emotional connection with his audience.
He won the Prague Spring International Music Competition in 2004 and gained awards at other leading international piano competitions (Maria Canals Piano Competition in Barcelona, Vendome Prize in Vienna, Stiftung Tomassoni Wettbewerb in Cologne, Fryderyk Chopin International Piano Competition in Marienbad, Concertino Praga, etc.).
After his successful debuts at Beethovenfest Bonn and Prague Spring Festival he was invited by the BBC to perform the Fourth Piano Concerto by Bohuslav Martinu at the BBC Proms with the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Jiri Belohlavek. The concert took place at the Royal Albert Hall in London in August 2007 and was broadcast live by the BBC Radio 3 and the BBC Television as well as the Czech National Radio station “Vltava”. This critically acclaimed Proms debut is now being offered by Deutsche Grammophon as a digital download. It’s no wonder that Ivo Kahánek was selected by Sir Simon Rattle to perform at two concerts with the Berliner Philharmoniker in November 2014, followed by enthusiastic reactions of critics and the general public alike.