The pianist Ivo Kahánek is one of today’s most successful Czech performers. After graduating from the Janáček Conservatoire in Ostrava and the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, he furthered his education at London’s famed Guildhall School and at a number of masterclasses. At the age of 25, he became the overall winner of the Prague Spring International Music Competition. Besides giving solo recitals, he appears with renowned orchestras (Czech Philharmonic, BBC Symphony Orchestra, WDR Symphony Orchestra in Cologne) and conductors (Vladimir Ashkenazy, Pinchas Steinberg, Jiří Bělohlávek). In 2007 at London’s famed BBC Proms, he performed the Piano Concerto No. 4 (“Incantation”) by Bohuslav Martinů. In November 2014 he became just the second Czech pianist in history (after Rudolf Firkušný) to appear with the Berlin Philharmonic. Sir Simon Rattle conducted the performance. He has a number of acclaimed recordings to his credit with the music of Frédéric Chopin and Leoš Janáček among other composers. His CD from last year with piano concertos by Dvořák and Martinů has been awarded this year by the prestigious British music journal BBC Music Magazine as the Recording of the Year in the Concerto category.

The Tetzlaff Quartet was founded in 1994 by the renowned German violinist Christian Tetzlaff with his sister the cellist Tanja Tetzlaff as well as violinist Elisabeth Kufferath and violist Hanna Weinmeister. During the twenty years of its existence the ensemble has developed a remarkable international reputation among both the public and professional critics, who describe its performing style as ‘supremely lyrical, exactingly detailed playing combined with impeccable balance and unanimity'. The quartet performs regularly on numerous important concert stages both at home and abroad –– in France, Italy, Belgium, Switzerland, Great Britain, the United States, and elsewhere. It is often invited to prestigious festivals like the Berliner Festwochen, the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, and the Bremen Musikfest. During last year’s season it visited Asia, performing in numerous concerts in Seoul, Tokyo, Osaka, and Yokohama. The Tetzlaff Quartet has made many recordings offering music in a wide range of styles, from Bach’s Art of Fugue to Berg’s Lyric Suite.