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PRAGUE PHILHARMONIC CHOIR
The Prague Philharmonic Choir, which is entering its 90th season, was founded in 1935 by choirmaster and teacher Jan Kühn. Thus, it is the oldest Czech professional choir. However, the choir’s name also appears on leading foreign stages.
Currently it has been praised mostly for the interpretations of its oratory and cantata repertoire. Since 2007 the head of the choir has been its principal choirmaster and artistic director, Lukáš Vasilek. Lukáš Kozubík completes the choirmaster duo. Since 2023 the Prague Philharmonic Choir has been working with the ČEZ Group. The Group, as the general partner, sponsors the choir at home and foreign concerts and also focuses on supporting talented young singers and educational activities.
Under Lukáš Vasilek, the choir has built its reputation as a highly respected performing partner of leading international orchestras.
At home, the ensemble collaborates regularly with the Czech Philharmonic and for its own choral concerts, with the Prague Philharmonia. Internationally, the PPC has worked, amongst others, with the Berlin and Dresden Philharmonikers, Wiener Symphoniker and NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra.
The PPC has also gained much experience working with the world’s top conductors including Semyon Bychkov, Jakub Hrůša, Sir Simon Rattle, Daniel Harding, Zubin Mehta and Christoph Eschenbach. The Choir also regularly appears at the Czech Republic’s most renowned festivals such as Smetana’s Litomyšl, Prague Spring, Dvořák Prague and Days of Bohuslav Martinů. The PPC has been the Choir in Residence at the Bregenzer Festspiele since 2010.
This season, the PPC will present four of its own concerts. Their programmes focus on demanding and lesser-known compositions in the choral repertoire including both acapella and instrumental works. As always, it will perform at home with the orchestras based in Prague as well as perform on tour in Dresden, Hong Kong, New York, Luzern and Bregenz. In August, the PPC will make its BBC Proms debut with the Czech Philharmonic.
Alongside its performances, the PPC engages in many educational projects. Every season it presents a cycle of educational concerts for children, both for school groups and for families. At the heart of these programmes is the idea of having fun and actively engaging young listeners. The PPC Choral Academy In honour of Soňa Červená gives singing students the opportunity to gain real-life experience of being part of a professional ensemble, participating in large musical projects and learning from collaborating with leading artists.
The qualities of the Choir are also highlighted through its rich recording archive which grows every season. The PPC has appeared on releases from PENTATONE, Decca Classics, Sony Classical and Supraphon. It has won many international awards for its recording projects including from Gramophone, BBC Music Magazine as well as the prestigious Diapason d ́Or de l´Annèe Award. The very first PPC recording dates back to 1952 featuring Dvořák’s oratorio Stabat Mater conducted by Václav Talich; its most recent release is Stravinsky, Janáček, Bartók: Village Stories, an album which seeks to explore and rediscover the magic of folk songs and traditional rituals in the music of three 20th–century masters.
The Prague Philharmonic Choir is laureate of the 2018 Classic Prague Award for Best Vocal Concert, Czech Television’s Classical Music of the Year Award and the 2022 Antonín Dvořák Prize for exceptional artistic achievements and promotion of Czech music. The album “Village Stories” received the CHOC de Classica award in May 2024.
