Tutors

Vladimír Bukač is one of the foremost viola players in the Czech Republic. He was born in 1964 and started playing violin at a very early age. He continued his studies with Nora Grumlikova at the Conservatory and the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague and then with Wolfgang Marschner at the University of Music in Freiburg, Germany. Already during his studies Bukac gained attention by winning prizes in several domestic and international competitions.

Between 1990 – 1993 Vladimir was engaged in Japan as soloist and chamber music player performing in all prestigious venues of Japan, as well as touring Australia and New Zealand. After returning to Europe Vladimír Bukač was invited to join the renowned Talich string quartet , which has been considered for many years to be one of the world´s finest string quartets. Over the past few decades, the Talich string quartet has been representing Czech musical art through the whole of Europe, Japan, North & South Americas, and South Korea, making records and giving master classes.

Apart from Vladimir’s string quartet playing, he performs regularly as soloist and chamber music player at major music festivals in Europe (Helsinki, Sardegna, Prades…) and also in Israel, USA and Japan.
He has made several acclaimed recordings on viola for the Czech Radio and BBC. Some of his CDs were voted one of Classic CD magazine’s “Choices of the Month” and were also praised with similar enthusiasm from The Strad Magazine and the Gramophone.

Since 2002, Vladimir Bukač is also a much sought-after professor of viola at the Music University in Dresden (Germany) and is regularly guest teaching at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester and giving master classes in Europe and the US. Apart from these activities, Vladimir Bukac has been repeatedly invited to judge international competitions (L.Tertis, ARD Munich etc…)

He plays a rare Italian instrument built by maestros Santini Lavazza (1725) and G.P. Guadagnini, Milan (1775).

Dominik Wollenweber was born in Munich in 1967. He studied the oboe at the Richard Strauss Conservatory in Munich with Simon Dent.

From 1991 to 1993 he continued as a scholarship holder at the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra Academy with Hansjörg Schellenberger. During this time, he also performed as principal oboist in the EU Youth Symphony Orchestra (EUYO) under Claudio Abbado.

In addition to a number of smaller prizes, he was awarded the Bavarian Ministry of Culture award in 1992. In 1996 he won the oboe prize at the ARD competition in Munich.

He has been principal English Horn player at the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra since 1993.

From 1998 he was a woodwind adviser for the Mahler Youth Orchestra GMJO for 10 years.

In 2000, Dominik Wollenweber was appointed a professor of oboe at the Hanns Eisler Music University in Berlin. Numerous students from his oboe class play in prestigious orchestras or have won prizes at international competitions.

As part of his orchestral work, he appears in many ensembles as a soloist or as a chamber musician. He is also a member of the Ensemble Berlin-Prague.

He has also performed as a baroque oboist for many years.

He was awarded the Opus Klassik Prize for the best instrumentalist in 2022 for his recording – The Art of English Horn.

Mr. Zenaty reaches a broad public without abandoning the world of classical music for even a moment. Besides the technical perfection one would expect, he is also appreciated for his taste, style and a captivatingly beautiful tone.

With his exceptional wealth of repertoire including more than 50 violin concertos, he is a favoured guest artist with many international orchestras. Known for his versatility, his engagements also include solo recitals and chamber music collaborations.

The springboard to his international career came as a result of being a prize winner in the Tchaikovsky International Violin Competition followed immediately by debut engagements with the Moscow and Czech Philharmonic. Other successes include First Prize at the Prague Spring Competition, as well as being a chosen laureate of the UNESCO International Rostrum of Young Performers. In the subsequent years following his victories, Mr. Zenaty made his orchestral and solo debuts in London, Berlin, Amsterdam, Vienna, Zurich, Tokyo, New York, Buenos Aires, Madrid and Jerusalem.

The musicianship of Ivan Zenaty has been influenced the most by his personal encounters with Nathan Milstein, Ruggiero Ricci and André Gertler. Studies at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow under the tutelage of Igor Bezrodny, had the greatest impact on his technical approach to the violin.

The great Czech musical tradition was passed on to Mr. Zenaty through his mentor Josef Suk, which resulted in many subsequent years of professional partnership and culminated in a recording of the complete works of W. A. Mozart. Other collaborations include great artists such as Yehudi Menuhin, Yo-Yo Ma, Serge Baudo, Valery Gergiev and Neville Marriner.

Ivan Zenaty’s recordings have always aroused the enthusiastic acclaim of listeners and music critics. His prolific output of over 40 CDs includes the complete works of Telemann, Bach, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Schulhoff, Dvořák and Grieg. His new recording of the complete works of Dvořák has attracted extraordinary attention, as has his recording of both violin concertos by J. B. Foerster with the BBC Symphony Orchestra London and its music director Jiri Belohlavek.

A natural counterbalance to Ivan Zenaty’s concert and recording activities is his work as an acclaimed teacher. Mr. Zenaty has taught at the Cleveland Institute of Music, at the Royal Academy of Music in Copenhagen and in the Fall of 2019 was invited to join the faculty of the Hochschule fur Musik in Dresden. Summer activities will include teaching at the Meadowmount School of Music.

Thanks to the Harmony Foundation of New York, Ivan Zenaty plays a rare Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesu violin made in 1740.

Czech violinist Jan Mráček was born in 1991 in Pilsen and began studying violin at the age of five, most recently under the tutelage of former concertmaster of the Vienna Symphony Jan Pospíchal. As a teenager, he recorded his first successes, won a number of competitions, and participated in masterclasses by master Václav Hudeček – this was the beginning of a long and fruitful collaboration. In 2010 he became the youngest laureate of the Prague Spring International Festival competition and in 2011 he was the youngest soloist in the history of the Czech Radio Symphony Orchestra. In 2014 he won first prize at the Fritz Kreisler International Violin Competition at the Konzerthaus in Vienna…

Prague FOK, Janáček Philharmonic Orchestra and almost all Czech regional orchestras.

He is in his fourth season as concertmaster of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra and has just won the Prague Classics Award for the best concert performance with the orchestra for Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 1 under the baton of Peter Altrichter.

Jan Mráček plays a 1905 Enrico Rocca violin formerly owned by Oscar Shumsky and generously loaned to him by Peter Biddulph.

An open-minded and eclectic musician who plays both the modern and baroque cello, Jérôme Pernoo is also sensitive to the diversity of artistic inventiveness and participates in less traditional projects. For instance, he has collaborated with the choreographer Régine Chopinot in a staged production of Bach’s Suites for Solo Cello, which toured worldwide.

The season 2008/09 was highlighted by the World Premiere of the cello concerto Guillaume Connesson has dedicated to him, with the Orchestre of the Rouen Opera, in Rouen and Paris. In 2011 he will perform this masterwork several times in France and at the Enescu Festival in Rumania. Further plans include, among others, Schumann’s cello concerto with the Ensemble Matheus and Jean-Christophe Spinosi as well as the world premiere of a cello concerto by Jérémie Rhorer.

Jérôme Pernoo is founder and artistic director of the music festival Les vacances de Monsieur Haydn in La Roche Posay, which first edition took place in September 2005.

Jérôme Pernoo’s discography includes Bach’s Suites for cello (live 1998), the Ricercati by degli Antonii and Gabrielli (2002), the Rachmaninov sonata associated with the quatre Pièces, and the Frank Bridge Sonata for cello and piano, which he recorded with Jérôme Ducros (2002), the Cello concerto Nr. 2 by Saint-Saens with the Orchestre de Bretagne under Nicolas Chalvin (Timpani Records, 2006) and the Cello concerto by Offenbach with Les Musiciens du Louvre under Marc Minkowski (Archiv-Deutsche Grammophon, 2006). Just released his new CD-recording (for Ligia digital) with Jérôme Ducros including works by Beethoven (among others Kreutzer Sonata in the transcription by Czerny) and Ducros’s music for DECCA.

He plays a baroque cello and a piccolo cello. Both instruments are Italian and were built in the 18th century by the Milanese School. He also plays a modern cello made for him by Franck Ravatin.

Vicens Prats studied music at the Barcelona Conservatory. In 1982, he won First Prize for flute at the Concours des Jeunesses Musicales in Spain and was a prize-winner at the Maria Canals Competition in Barcelona the following year. In Paris, he studied with Ida Ribeira, Michel Debost and Jean-Pierre Rampal before winning, in 1984, First Prize for flute, unanimously, at the Conservatoire national supérieur de musique de Paris, as well as First Prize for chamber music in the class of Christian Lardé. In 1985, he was a prize-winner at the Kobe International Flute Competition in Japan.

Principal Flute of the Orchestre national du Capitole de Toulouse from 1987 to 1991, and from 1991 was Vicens Prats hired as Principal Flute at the Orchestre de Paris.

In addition to his role as soloist with the Orchestre de Paris, Vicens Prats gives masterclasses all over the world and is a professor at the École supérieure de musique de Catalogne in Barcelona as well as at the École Normale de Musique de Paris.

Přemysl Vojta was awarded in 2010 with the first prize in the International ARD Competition. In 2011, after his successful debut at the Beethoven Festival Bonn, he received the prestigious Beethoven Ring Award. Since then he has been performing as a soloist with many orchestras in Europe, South America and Asia including performances with the Academy of St. Martin ́s in the Fields, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Stuttgart Radio Orchestra, the Berlin Konzerthaus Orchestra, the Wiesbaden State Theater Orchestra, and the Prague Philharmonia.

Přemysl was born in 1983 in Brno (Czech Republic), began playing the horn at the age of ten, under the mentorship of Olga Voldánová. After studying at the Prague Conservatory from 1998 until 2004 with Bedřich Tylšar he moved to Germany, where he was a student of Christian- Friederich Dallmann at the Universität der Künste Berlin from 2004 to 2010.

He was a teacher at the Universität der Künste Berlin (2010-2015), at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz in Cologne (2015-2017) and since October 2021 he is a professor for french horn at the Folkwang University of Arts in Essen (Germany).

Přemysl Vojta was a Principal Hornist of the Berlin Konzerthaus Orchestra and now holds the same post in the WDR Symphony Orchestra in Cologne.

Partnered with pianists Tomoko Sawano and Tobias Koch, he has released a number of recordings that attracted much critical acclaim. His latest CD of all Michael and Joseph Haydn horn concertos (with the Haydn Ensemble Prague and Martin Petrák) was released in autumn 2018.

Přemysl Vojta plays a french horn made by Klaus Fehr (model 3). For the performances with period instruments, he plays a f-horn made by Daniel Fuchs (Vienna) and a natural horn made by Curtois (Paris).

Pianist Miloslava Machová graduated at Prague conservatory as a student of Mrs. Eva Boguniová and after that she continued her studies at the Musical faculty of Academy of Performing Arts in Prague in class of Mr. František Malý.

Having finishing her studies, she focused on chamber music and piano accompanying, playing mostly with wind instrument players. She co-worked with a number of both Czech and European leading artists and she recorded also a plenty of records with them. In 2008, she was named as the official accompanist of the Prague Spring International Music Competition.

She currently works as a research assistant at the Musical faculty of Academy of Performing Arts in Prague and at the brass departement of Prague conservatory.

Since 2006, she regularly accompanies the students at the Summer courses of the French-Czech Music Academy in Telč.

Pianist Iva Návratová is appreciated by the audience and critics in the first place for her poetic and sensitive playing, which captures the attention.

Born in Ostrava, this Czech pianist began her musical studies at the age of five. After graduating of the State Conservatory in her home town, she proceeded to Prague, where she gained her Master of Arts degree at the Academy of Musical Arts under the direction of the great teachers and performers, Professors Jan Panenka and Ivan Moravec.

Even at the beginning of her career, she was already appearing as soloist with orchestras such as the Prague Symphony (FOK), Janacek Philharmony Ostrava, State Philharmony Brno and others.

Immediately after completing her studies, Mrs. Navratova was appointed as a teacher for Piano, Collaborative Piano and Chamber Music at the Janacek Akademy of Musical Arts in Brno, Czech. She quickly became a sought-after chamber music partner and performed regularly in concerts, radio and television with numerous soloists, singers and chamber ensembles. As a member of Society of Czech Composers and Concert Artists, she gave frequent premiers of new works.

In 1989 Iva has accepted the offer from the University of Music in Trossingen, Germany, where she teaches at the Piano Accompaniment Department. Since then she has continued to collaborate internationally with many well-known soloists and performs regularly in concerts, international symposiums, master-classes and competitions. With a vast repertoir, spanning a large range of styles, periods and chamber music formations, she has become one of today´s most indemand pianists. Her activities have included performances in Japan, South Korea, China, USA, Cuba, Turkey and in almost all European Countries.

Iva Navratova is also appreciated as a piano teacher. After moving to Trossingen, she has taught at Music Schools in Konstanz and Singen and during summer semester 2001 as a guest teacher at the University of Nothern Iowa, USA. Since 2002 she has been responsible for piano education at the Hohner Conservatory, Trossingen.

Born in Saint-Nazaire, Karine Sélo started playing the piano at the age of 7. First of all, she studied at the École Nationale de Musique in her hometown and obtained a DEM with distinction. She then continued her studies at the Conservatoires of Versailles, Paris and Boulogne-Billancourt where she obtained several first prizes for piano and chamber music. Among others, she has worked with Hortense Cartier-Bresson, Paul Meyer and Eric Le Sage in various chamber music groups.

In 2002, she met Jérôme Pernoo: it was the beginning of a long musical partnership and she first became his accompanist at the Royal College of Music in London and since September 2007 at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique in Paris. She has also worked with Gary Hoffman, Claudio Bohorquez, Philippe Muller, Michel Michalkakos, François Salque, Pierre-Olivier Queyras, Young- Chang Cho, Julien Beaudiment, Marc Danel… at master classes and international academies (Kronberg Academy, Cagliari Academy, Kuhmo festival, Musicalp, International Summer Academy PragWienBudapest…) and has been invited to accompany instrumentalists in international competitions such as the Tchaikovsky Competitions, the Feuerman in Berlin, the Young Concert Artists, the Paulo Cello Competition in Helsinki, Isang Yun in Korea, Queen Elisabeth in Brussels, as well as for the competitions for the Orchestre de l’Opéra National de Paris and the Conservatoire du 5ème arrondissement in Paris since 2005. ​​

A chamber music enthusiast, Karine performs in various groups, from duos to quintets and participates in many festivals: Les Vacances de Monsieur Haydn in La Roche-Posay, Les Musicales de Blanchardeau, International Summer Academy PragWienBudapest in Austria, International Spring Festival at Téatru Manoel in Malta, Festival de Saint-Hilaire Des Noyres, Musique en Pays de Serres, À Portée de Mains in Autun, Les Musicales du Parc de Wesserling, Cordes aux Vents, Musique en Pays de Noailles… She also performs at the Moulin d’Andé, at the Theatre de l’Île Saint-Louis in Paris, the Château de Ratilly and is a regular guest of the Ensemble Reza in the UK. She has partnered musicians such as Jérome Pernoo, Claudio Bohorquez, Michel Lethiec, Felix Renggli, Gérard Poulet, the baritones Yann Toussaint and Julien Clément, Claire Thion of the Chiaroscuro Quartet, the Elixir Trio… and she founded the Trio Impromptu with Anais Perrin and Lucile Perrin.

She has featured on the radio, particularly in the France Musique programmes Un Mardi Idéal, Plaisirs d’Amours, Dans la Cour des Grands, Les Apprentis du Bien Nourri.​

Her activities bring her into the company of today’s composers: in March 2009, she performed the Quintet for piano and strings by Jérôme Ducros, in 2011 she wrote the reduction for cello and piano of the Concerto for Cello and Orchestra by Guillaume Concesson for Éditions Billaudot and in 2013 she was responsible for the artistic direction of the En Aparte CD of the works of Jérôme Ducros for Universal Music.

Jakub belongs to the best known pianists amongst the Czech young generation. Coming from a musical family, he started to study piano at the age of five with Mgr. Božena Slancova at Bohuslav Jeremiáš Music School in České Budějovice. Jakub continued his piano studies at Conservatoire České Budějovice in the class of Magda Štajnochrova and at HAMU (Music Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts) with Ivan Klansky. Just now is he close to finish his PhD. Degree.

During his studies he undertook a year long placement at the Norwegian Academy of Music of Oslo in the class of Havard Gimse, with lessons from Leif-Ove Andsnes. Jakub made his debut in tender age with first place at Virtuosi per Musica di Pianoforte International Piano Competition and multiple laureateships at Prague Junior Note. 

He followed his early successes with a series of achievements: double victory at National Competition of Conservatoires, title of absolute winner from ProBohemia piano contest as well as with awards from Smetana International Competition, Chopin Piano Competition in Mariánské Lazne and others. Jakub gained laureateships of Beethoven’s Hradec International Competition, Mahler’s International Piano Competition and International Competition of Rudolf Firkusny. Most recently he became laureate of Bohuslav Martinu International Piano Competition. He attended international master classes with Jiří Hlinka, Kurt Seibert, Irina Lein-Edelstein, Frederic Lagarde, Lars Vogt, Avo Kouyoumdjian, Pierre Jasmin and Jelena Galinina.

Jakub has performed under the batons of many significant Czech conductors: Jakub Hrůša, Stanislav Vavřínek, Jaroslav Krček, David Švec, Petr Chromčák, Marek Ivanovič and others. 

Jakub has performed at renowned festivals: Janáčkův Máj, Musik Festival Koblenz, Sicilia Musica, Ti nejlepší, Talentinum Zlín, Chopin Festival, etc. Until now he has given more than 600 concerts for audiences in Czech Republic, Austria, Italy, China, Croatia, France, Russia, Germany, Greece, Turkey and Norway. He has recorded for Czech TV, Czech Radio and Bipp art. So far he has published a CD and 2 DVDs with live concert performances. At present Jakub resides in the Czech Republic.

Robert Umansky was born in 1985 in Kharkov (Ukraine) and studied there at the University of the Arts with Tatjana Werkina. He completed further studies with Michael Leuschner in Freiburg (piano) and with Tatevik Mokatsian in Saarbrücken (chamber music), which he completed with top marks. He also took part in master classes such as the Forum Musiktage in Madrid. He has won prizes at competitions in Göttingen and Ettlingen and in 2001 was awarded 2nd prize at the International Competition for Young Pianists in Memory of Vladimir Horowitz in Kiev. In 2013, he was awarded the prize for the best interpretation of a contemporary work at the Arthur Lepthien Competition in Freiburg. As a soloist, he has performed numerous concerts, including piano concertos by Mozart, Chopin, Rachmaninov and Prokofiev, and has taken part in audio productions, for example for Saarländischer Rundfunk. As a sought-after duo partner, he regularly performs with various instrumentalists and is invited as a pianist to international festivals, competitions and master classes. Since October 2017, he has been a lecturer for instrumental accompaniment with strings at the Carl Maria von Weber University of Music in Dresden.