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.

David Mareček graduated in piano and conducting from the Brno Conservatoire, then continued his education at the Janáček Academy of Performing Arts in piano and, as the focus of doctoral studies, in performance and theory of performance. While still a student he also taught at the Pavel Křížkovský Elementary Arts School and Gymnasium. At the Brno Conservatory he served as assistant director and as professor of piano. He became programming director of the Brno Philharmonic in 2005, and two years later that ensemble's general director. Already during that time he strove to recruit new, mainly young, listeners of classical music, which he endeavoured to make more 'visible' to the broad public. Since 2011 he has been continuing in those same pursuits in his current position as general director of the Czech Philharmonic, where he regularly achieves splendid results in arranging for prestigious opportunities to present the art of our foremost orchestra on the international scene.