For several decades, the conductor and organist Stephen Cleobury has been one of Britain’s most prominent performers of sacred music. He has served as the organist and music director at Westminster Abbey and as president of the Royal College of Organists, promoting performing and education in the field of sacred music. Anglia Ruskin University conferred on him an honorary doctorate. As an organist, he has given concerts in many European countries and overseas, and from 1995 to 2007 he served as the chief conductor of the BBC Singers chamber choir. Since 1982, he has served in Cambridge as organist and music director of the King’s College Choir. With it, he has achieved many international successes, and he has taken the initiative in the creation of many new works for the choir by such contemporary composers as John Tavener and Arvo Pärt. For his lifetime of service to music, Queen Elizabeth II conferred on him the title of Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2009.

The King's College Choir for men and boys is one of the most renowned representatives of the English choral tradition. It was created by King Henry VI, who founded King’s College, Cambridge, in 1441 to provide musical performances at the college chapel, and this remains the choir’s chief activity to this day. New applicants for membership in the choir are usually auditioned at six or seven years of age, and after a probationary period, at about the age of eight they become full members. The lower choral parts are sung by university students. Besides frequent performances in its own country, during the twentieth century the choir began to give regular tours abroad. It has visited most of the countries of Europe, the USA, South America, Asia, and Australia. It made its first recording back in 1929, and since then it has issued more than a hundred, mostly for Decca and EMI. The choir’s current music director is Stephen Cleobury.

The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment was founded in 1986, and today it is one of the most important British ensembles devoted to the authentic interpretation of early music on period instruments. Its repertoire, however, is not limited strictly to the historical epoch that it bears in its name – it interprets musical works by composers ranging from Henry Purcell and Johanna Sebastian Bach to Johannes Brahms and Richard Wagner. The orchestra does not have a chief conductor, but instead chooses to collaborate on individual projects with important musical figures, including such prominent artists as Roger Norrington, William Christie, Simon Rattle, Iván Fischer, and Paavo Järvi. The orchestra also performs the operatic and oratorio repertoire. It has more than fifty CD recordings to its credit, predominantly of the music of the Baroque and Classical periods. Several of the recordings were made in collaboration with top soloists, such as Renée Fleming, Andreas Scholl, Emanuel Ax, Thomas Hampson, and Cecilia Bartoli.

Baritone Roman Hoza is one of the most successful Czech performers of the younger generation. A graduate of the Janáček Academy of Performing Arts in Brno, he completed a yearlong study visit at the Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst in Vienna. He has been a member of the opera studio of the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Düsseldorf. He is a laureate of competitions including the A. Dvořák International Singing Competition in Karlovy Vary and the International Chamber Music and Sacred Music Competition. As a guest artist, he has introduced himself to the opera public in Vienna, Lyon, Salzburg, Düsseldorf, Duisburg, Cologne, Kaiserslautern, Prague, Ostrava, and other cities. The foundation of his repertoire consists of roles in the operas of W. A. Mozart (Don Giovanni, Leporello, Figaro, Guglielmo, Papageno) and Gioacchino Rossini (Dandini, Rimbaud, Bartolo, Signor Mill). He appears regularly with the leading Czech ensembles specialising in the informed interpretation of early music (incl. Handel’s Messiah with the Czech Ensemble Baroque). Since the 2016/2017 season he has been a soloist with the Janáček Opera at the National Theatre in Brno.

Tenor Aleš Voráček is a graduate of the conservatory in his hometown České Budějovice, where as a student he was already appearing as a soloist with the opera ensemble of the South Bohemian Theatre. In 2005 he was engaged there on a full-time basis, and so far he has performed roles including Nemorino in Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore, Ferrando in Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte, Vítek in Smetana’s Secret, Don Ottavio in Mozart’s Don Giovanni, and the Prince in Dvořák’s Rusalka. In the latter role, he has also appeared on the rotating summer stage in Český Krumlov. He is a regular guest at the National Theatre in Prague and Brno. He also takes part frequently in concert projects with the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, for example. With the ensemble Musica Bohemica he appears regularly on tours of Spain. With the Prague Philharmonia, he sang in a performance of Schumann’s Requiem, and with Jiří Bělohlávek and the BBC Symphony Orchestra, he took part in concert performances of the operas The Bartered Bride and Jakobín at London’s Barbican Hall.

Mezzo-soprano Markéta Cukrová is known primarily for her outstanding interpretations of early music. In this field, she collaborates with renowned Czech and foreign ensembles including Collegium Vocale Gent, Musica Florea, Ensemble Inégal, and Collegium 1704. She has met with great acclaim for her interpretations of the Lieder repertoire accompanied by the fortepiano, singing the works by masters from the turn of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and for her recording of Italian arias by Jan Dismas Zelenka for the Accent label. She also devotes herself intensively to the opera repertoire. At the National Theatre in Prague, she has performed the roles of Euridice in Monteverdi’s opera Orfeo and Eustazia in Handel’s Rinaldo. For the role of Dardana in Handel’s opera Amadigi di Gaula at the Handelfestspiele in Göttingen, Germany, she received enthusiastic reviews and an invitation to sing a solo recital at the festival. She makes guest appearances on opera stages in Košice, Brno, and Ostrava, and she is also active as a dramaturge.

Pavla Vykopalová is one of today’s most sought-after Czech sopranos. She is a soloist with the opera ensemble at the Janáček Theatre in Brno and is a regular guest with the opera of the National Theatre. She has made appearances abroad on a number of foreign opera stages, including appearances in France, Denmark, and Hungary. Her vast repertoire includes vocal music in all genres and styles, from Baroque music to works of the 21^st century. Among her most prominent roles are Mozart’s Donna Elvira, Dvořák’s Rusalka, Smetana’s Mařenka, Puccini’s Mimi, Janáček’s Jenůfa, and Bizet’s Micaëla. In 2016 she won a Thália Award for the role of Káťa Kabanová in a production directed by Robert Carsen. She also performs the concert repertoire, including the songs of Maurice Ravel, the soprano solo in the Symphony No. 3 (“Kaddish”) by Leonard Bernstein, and the cantatas of Bohuslav Martinů. She has sung under the baton of such conductors as Jiří Kout, Jiří Bělohlávek, Leopold Hager, Eliahu Inbal, and Iván Fischer. She has recorded several CDs for the Multisonic, Orfeo, Rosa, and Supraphon labels.