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Brahms and Tchaikovsky: among the foremost artists of their time, contemporaries and friends of Antonín Dvořák. Thus we can briefly characterize the composers of two superb works of chamber music from the second half of the nineteenth century that we'll hear in renditions by renowned soloists in the attractive ambiance of the St. Agnes Convent.
Jakub Fišer is a graduate of the Prague Conservatoire and of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. He studied violin under Prof. Bublová, Prof. Metelková, Prof. Foltýn, and Prof. Čepický. He has achieved success at numerous international competitions (incl. the Slovak competition Čírenie talentov, the Kocián Violin Competition, and Beethoven’s Hradec). In 2011 he won the Josef Hlávka Foundation Award. Jakub Fišer appeared several times as a soloist in the series “Josef Suk Presents Young Talents”, and he has given solo performances at concerts of the Prague Chamber Philharmonic, the Hradec Králové Philharmonic, and the Pilsen Philharmonic. He has participated at masterclasses with Shlomo Mintz, Semyon Yaroshevich, and Stephen Shipps. He has served as concertmaster of the Prague Chamber Philharmonic and as a guest concertmaster of the Czech Philharmonic and the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern. At present, he is the first violinist of the Bennewitz Quartet. He also appears occasionally as a soloist. For example, at the Chopin Festival in Mariánské Lázně he joined with Jiří Bárta and Roman Patočka in playing Bach’s Goldberg Variations.
The violinist Jan Mráček has been one of the most prominent performers of his generation. He began playing violin at the age of five, and he studied at the School of Music of the City of Prague and the Prague Conservatoire. At the age of 13 he first appeared on the stage of the Rudolfinum alongside Josef Suk. His many competition successes include second prize at the 2010 Prague Spring Competition, when at the age of 19 he became the youngest laureate in its history. He appears regularly with Václav Hudeček, and since 2012 he has been an assistant at the Václav Hudeček Academy. In 2011 he became the youngest soloist in the history of the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, and three years later he won the Fritz Kreisler International Violin Competition in Vienna. Since 2015 he has been serving as concertmaster of the Czech Philharmonic. He appears as a soloist around the world together with such great conductors as Maxim Vengerov, James Judd, Jac van Steen, and Vladimir Fedoseyev.
The British violinist Daniel Hope was born in 1973 in South Africa to the family of the poet and prose writer Christopher Hope. While still a child he moved with his parents to London where he studied with Yehudi Menuhin. In 2002 he became a member of the famous Beaux Arts Trio, in which he remained until that ensemble disbanded in 2008. Since 2011 he has served as a professor of violin at the Royal Academy of Music in London. Five times he has been honoured with a prestigious Echo Klassik award, in 2006 as Instrumentalist of the Year. In 2013 he was the main actor in the documentary film The Secrets of the Violin, mapping the history of the making of this instrument from Stradivari to the present time. Hope's discography includes more than twenty compact discs featuring music by Bach, Mozart, and Mendelssohn but also rarely-performed composers like Foulds, Ireland, Korngold, and Waxman; since 2007 he has been recording exclusively for the prestigious Deutsche Grammophon label. Starting with the 2016-17 season he will serve as artistic director of the Zurich Chamber Orchestra, and in this year's Dvořák Prague Festival he is curator of the chamber series.
Violist Paul Neubauer, a native of Los Angeles with Czech ancestors, is one of the most frequently-requested performers on his instrument at the present time. The outstanding qualities of his playing allowed him at the age of twenty-one to become the youngest-ever principal string player in the New York Philharmonic. During the six years of his engagement with that orchestra he appeared as soloist on about twenty occasions, including the New York premiere of the Viola Concerto by Krzysztof Penderecki under the composer's baton. Neubauer performs as soloist with many other world-class orchestras as well, including the San Francisco Symphony and the English Chamber Orchestra. An important part of his work is in chamber music, where he collaborates with soloists such as Pinchas Zukerman, James Galway, Vladimir Spivakov, and Alicia de Larrocha. His extensive discography encompasses works from various style periods by many composers including Debussy, Mozart, Beethoven, Wolpe, Dvořák, Wuorinen, and Schubert.
The renowned British cellist Josephine Knight is among the most sought-after performers of her generation, known for the great breadth of her activities ranging from solo concerts through chamber playing to work as a pedagogue. She holds degrees from two prestigious American institutions, Yale University and the Juilliard School, and has won many important international awards. She appears as soloist with outstanding orchestras such as the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, the BBC Philharmonic, and the English Chamber Orchestra under the batons of conductors like Vasily Petrenko, Richard Hickox, and Jac van Steen. In chamber music she often collaborates with the foremost soloists and ensembles of the world including for example Daniel Hope, Maxim Vengerov, Lisa Batiashvili, Menahem Pressler, the Guarneri Quartet, and the Emerson Quartet.
The young Czech cellist Ivan Vokáč has been playing his instrument since the age of four. A graduate of the Prague Conservatoire as well as Prague's Academy of Performing Arts, where he studied cello with Miroslav Petráš, he has won honours in many international competitions, most notably the Liezen Competition in Austria (2002), the Dotzauer Competition in Dresden (2005), and the Concertino Praga Radio Competition (2006) where he was declared the absolute victor. He has participated in many master classes led by such luminaries as Steven Isserlis, Boris Pergamenschikow, and Rafael Wallfish. Chamber groups in which he performs include for example the Taras Piano Trio and the Helios Trio of Prague. In 2008 Vokáč performed in a gala concert for the anniversary of the Prague Conservatoire where under the baton of Miriam Němcová he rendered the solo part in Dvořák's Cello Concerto in B minor.
The Convent of St. Agnes in the 'Na Františku' neighbourhood of Prague's Old Town is considered the first Gothic structure not only in Prague but in all of Bohemia. It was founded by King Wenceslas I in 1233–34 at the instigation of his sister, the Přemyslid princess Agnes of Bohemia, for the Order of Saint Clare which Agnes introduced into Bohemia and of which she was the first abbess. The convent was preceded by a hospital. The 'Poor Clares' originated as an offshoot of the Order of St. Francis of Assisi, and the convent was at one time known as the Prague Assisi. Agnes was an outstanding figure in religious life of the thirteenth century. Besides this Clarist convent she also founded the only Czech religious order – the Hospital Order of the Knights of the Cross with the Red Star. She was canonized in 1989.