Jan Schulmeister has been playing the piano since the age of five. In addition to studying in Eva Zonová’s class at the Arts Primary School in Kroměříž, he has also completed a number of master classes with leading teachers and artists both at home and abroad. He has received the most prestigious prizes from many piano competitions, including being the two-time winner of the National Arts Primary School competition, the two-time absolute winner of the Piano Talents competition in Milan and the recipient of the absolute winner’s title in the Amadeus and Beethoven’s Teplice competitions. He has also added victories at the César Franck Competition in Brussels and at the Estonian Odin International Music Competition. He became a finalist in the 2020 Concertino Praga competition and received the EMCY Prize. He performs with leading Czech orchestras under the batons of Tomáš Netopil, Dennis Russell Davies or Jiří Rožeň and he cooperates with the Wihan Quartet. He plays regular solo concerts at both Czech and international concert halls and he participates at international music festivals such as the Prague Spring, Dvořák Prague, Smetana’s Litomyšl, Svátky hudby or the South Bohemian Festival.

The Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra is one of the most important and oldest orchestras in the Czech Republic. For many decades, it has been a versatile orchestra with a broad repertoire of concert music and opera. Among the permanent and guest conductors to work with the orchestra have been Václav Talich, Karel Ančerl, Václav Neumann, Vladimír Válek, and Charles Mackerras. Its present chief conductor is Alexander Liebreich. A number of composers from around the world have performed their own works with the orchestra, including Sergei Prokofiev and Aram Khachaturian. The orchestra has always been heavily involved with recording activity, and it has to its credit the making of recordings of many Czech classics that are not a usual part of the repertoire. This is not its first appearance at the Dvořák Prague Festival: in 2014, for example, it took part in the world premiere complete concert performance of Dvořák’s first opera Alfred with its original German libretto, and in 2019 it gave a unique performance of Dvořák’s first musical setting of the libretto King and Collier in a modern-era premiere.

Jiří Rožeň, who turns 29 this year, is one of the biggest discoveries among the young generation of conductors. He studied conducting at several different schools in Prague, Salzburg, Hamburg, Zurich, and Glasgow, and he has taken part in masterclasses led by such figures as Daniele Gatti, Bernard Haitink, and David Zinman. His greatest successes so far include participation in the finals of the conducting competition in Salzburg and the post of assistant conductor of hte BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, where was working alongside Donald Runnicles and Thomas Dausgaard. He collaborates with the Czech Philharmonic, with which he has also recorded Kalon by the contemporary British composer Richard Blackford. Among the orchestras with which he has so far appeared are the Deutsches Sinfonie-Orchester Berlin, the BBC Philharmonic, the Ulster Orchestra, Camerata Salzburg, the Czech Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra in Pardubice, and the Brno Philharmonic. He is a great promoter of Czech music: besides works of the classical repertoire, he also performs works by the twentieth-century composers Viktor Kalabis and Miroslav Kabeláč, whose Symphony No. 4 he gave its Austrian premiere at the Salzburg Festival.

Vsevolod Zavidov was born in Moscow in 2005. He started playing the piano under Tamara Koloss at the Central Music School at the age of four. In 2018, he moved to the Gnessin Music School to study under Professor Tatiana Zelikman. Vsevolod debuted in the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory when aged eight. He has also performed in its Minor and Rachmaninov Halls, at the Moscow International Performing Arts Centre and in various cities around Russia. In 2016, he won the 1st prize in the Debut International Piano Competition in New York, the USA and he played a recital at the Weill Recital Hall in Carnegie Hall. In 2017, he performed Shostakovich' Piano Concerto no. 1 with the Moscow Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra under the baton of Vladimir Spivakov. In 2018, Vsevolod performed at the Chetham School of Music in Manchester, England, at the Prayner Conservatory of Music and Dramatic Arts in Vienna, Austria and as a guest artist at the Golden Key Music Festival. He won the Grand Prix at the Drozdoff Society's 2018 Impromptu! Audition and played five recitals in the states of New York, Connecticut and New Jersey in 2019.

Alexandr Rublev was born in Moscow on 18.11.2005. He started playing the trumpet at the age of five and is currently studying under Professor Vladimir Pushkarev at the Gnessin Music School. He holds scholarships from the Vladimir Spivakov International Charity Foundation and the New Names Foundation. Some of Aleksandr’s music awards include the Grand Prix from the II Paris International Internet Music Competition and the VIII Music Competition in Serbia (2017), the 3^rd prizes from the X Mravinsky Competition in Saint-Petersburg, Classic Pure Vienna and the XIX Nutcracker TV competition in Moscow (2018), a gold medal from the Vienna International Music Competition and the Best Trumpeter prize from the 5^th Positively Brass Solo Competition held in Trossingen, Germany (2019). Aleksandr has also taken part in music festivals in Amsterdam (2015), Iguazu en Concierto in Argentina, the Cap Ferret Music Festival in France (2017), the 19^th Italian Brass Week (2018), Maspalomas in Spain and the AlpenKlassik in Germany (2019). He is a member and soloist of the Yuri Bashmet Youth Symphony Orchestra. In 2019, he performed with the Orchestra da Camera Fiorentina under Giuseppe Lanzetta.