Soprano Jana Sibera graduated from the Prague Conservatory (2000) and the Faculty of Music of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (2005). Since 1995, she has been a guest at the National Theatre and since 2000 at the State Opera Prague, where she accepted an engagement in 2002. Since 1st January 2012 she has been a soloist of the National Theatre Opera.

She has appeared in productions of the State Opera Prague and the National Theatre as Mozart’s Zerlina (Don Giovanni), Susanna (The Marriage of Figaro), Papagena and the Queen of the Night (Die Zauberflöte) and Despina (Così fan tutte); Lucia (Donizetti: Lucia di Lammermoor), Verdi’s Violetta (La traviata), Gilda (Rigoletto) and Oscar (Masquerade Ball), as well as Musetta (Puccini: La bohème), Adéla (Strauss: Die Fledermaus), Philine (Thomas: Mignon), Frasquita and Micaela (Bizet: Carmen), The Cook and the First Maid (Dvořák: Rusalka), Clarisse (Weber – Mahler: The Three Pints), Cunegonde (Bernstein: Candide), in the triple role of the Waiter – the Miracle Child – the Pupil in Janáček’s opera The Excursions of Mr.Brouček under the baton of Charles Mackerras, also as Karolina (Smetana: The Two Widows), Bystrouska (Janáček: The Cunning Little Vixen), Terinka (Dvořák: Jakobín), Mařenka (Humperdinck: Jeníček a Mařenka), etc. Her repertoire also includes the roles of Norina (Donizetti: Don Pasquale), Blonda (Mozart: The Abduction from the Seraglio), Fiorilla (Rossini: The Turk in Italy) and Blaženka (Smetana: The Secret), which she staged for the J. K. Tyl Theatre in Pilsen.

She performed in more than 40 performances of Don Giovanni in the summer stagion of Opera Mozart at the Estates Theatre. At the National Moravian-Silesian Theatre she guest-starred as Verdi’s Violetta (La traviata), Eurydice (Offenbach: Orpheus in the Underworld) and Annina (Strauss: A Night in Venice). In 2022 she performed the role of Manon in Jules Massenet’s opera of the same name, for which she also won the Thalia Award.

In June 2008 she was a finalist in the Barbara Hendricks International Singing Competition in Strasbourg. In 2011 and 2012, she guest starred as Violetta in Gdansk, and in 2016 as Ophelia in Opera Gothenburg. She has also participated in several tours of the National Theatre Opera in Japan and Korea. Among her great successes is the collaboration with tenor Jonas Kaufmann on his profile CD for Decca. She has worked with conductors such as M. Armiliato, Sir Ch. Mackerras, J. Bělohlávek, J. Latham-Koenig, G. Tourniaire and E. Dovico.

The mezzo-soprano Jana Hrochová (Wallingerová), née Štefáčková, gained her first singing experience in a children’s choir in the Moravian town of Šumperk. She studied at the Prague Conservatory with Jarmila Krásová from 1993 to 1999. In 2001, she began studying privately with the soprano Natalia Romanová. In 1998, she came in second at the Czech Conservatories Singing Contest. Her first engagements took place at the Opera Mozart in Prague between 1997 and 2000, extending her activities to ancient music (with Ars Cameralis) and folk music (with the Muzika Jara ensemble). In 2000, Mrs Hrochová was invited to join the opera company of the National Theatre in Brno, Czech Republic. The repertoire she sang in Brno includes Carmen (Carmen), Laura (La Gioconda), Kate (The Devil and Kate), Rosina (Il barbiere di Siviglia), Suzuki (Madame Butterfly), The Fox (The Cunning Little Vixen), Varvara (Katja Kabanova), Fenena (Nabucco), Hänsel (Hänsel and Gretel), Nicklausse (The Tales of Hoffmann) and others. Guest performances have taken the young mezzo to a number of opera houses, such as the Prague National Theatre, Prague State Opera, Plzeň, Ústí nad Labem, Liberec, Ostrava, Olomouc (Czech Republic), State Theatre Košice (Slovakia) and Theatre Freiburg (Germany). Mrs Hrochová’s concert activities are an essential part of her repertoire and have brought her together with some leading Czech and foreign orchestras, such as the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, Czech Philharmonic, Prague Symphony Orchestra FOK, Prague Radio Symphonic Orchestra, Brno Philharmonic Orchestra, Prague Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra, Janáček Philharmonic Orchestra, Bohuslav Martinů Philharmonic Orchestra and others. She works with conductors such as Jiří Bělohlávek, Serge Baudo, Gerd Albrecht, Manfred Honeck, Ondrej Lenárd, Petr Altrichter, Jakub Hrůša, Leoš Svárovský, Tomáš Hanus, Andrej Borejko, Dennis Russell Davies and others. Mrs Hrochová  often makes guest appearances at opera houses and concert stages outside the Czech Republic (Great Britain, Japan, China, Spain, Mexico, Greece, Netherlands, Austria, Germany and Italy). In 2011, she sang the alto solo in Dvorak’s Requiem mass at a state funeral of Vaclav Havel. The Brno National Theatre awarded her with the DIVA 2005, 2008 and 2010 Award. In 2012, she was nominated for the Thalia award for her role as Dulcinée in Massenet’s Don Quichotte in a production of the F. X. Šalda Theatre in Liberec. In 2013, she was nominated for the Thalia award for her role as Hermia in Britten’s Midsummer Night’s Dream in a production of The Brno National Theatre. In 2011 and 2018 she recorded songs by Bohuslav Martinů for Naxos Records. In 2014, she was invited to perform the role of Carmen in the Theatre Freiburg, Germany. In 2016, she made her BBC Proms debut at the Royal Albert Hall in London.

www.janahrochova.cz/

In his early youth Ondřej Holub went through Kühn’s children’s choir and the Pueri gaudentes boys’ choir, thanks to which he became a child soloist of the Prague State Opera in a production of Mozart’s The Magic Flute. He studied classical singing privately with Prof. Lenka Pištěcká, while studying at the Prague Conservatory with Prof. Valentin Prolat and later developed his singing skills with Prof. Jiří Kotouč.

Since 2019 he has been collaborating with the internationally renowned Collegium 1704, where he performs as a soloist as a soloist and ensemble singer, he also regularly collaborates with Ensemble Damian, a historically informed interpretation of Baroque opera. As a soloist he regularly collaborates with a number of ensembles and orchestras (Prague Symphony Orchestra FOK, Hradec Králové Philharmonic, South Bohemian Chamber Philharmonic, etc. He is also an ensemble singer with most of the leading domestic early music ensembles – Schola Gregoriana Pragensis, Collegium Marianum, Cappella Mariana, Ensemble Inégal, Czech Ensemble Baroque, Victoria Ensemble, Musica Florea, with whom he regularly participates in prestigious domestic and international festivals.

From 2013-2019 he was a member of the vocal ensemble Martinů Voices, which ranks among the elite performers of 20th and 21st century music. In 2007, he founded the male vocal quintet Rudolfvoice with former members of the Pueri Gaudentes choir, with whom he performed at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. He also occasionally collaborates with the Prague Philharmonic Choir, with whom he performed Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 at New York’s Carnegie Hall on the centenary of the founding of Czechoslovakia.

Jan Dušek studied at the Conservatory in Teplice (piano, composition). In 2004-2012, he studied composition at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (Hanus Barton), where he finished his doctoral studies in the same field in 2012. Since then, Jan Dušek has taught at the composition department of the Academy. As a pianist he participated in several master courses (Cyprien Katsaris, Irina Ossipova, Angela Hewitt, Lilit Grygorian, Maria João Pires), in 2013/14 he studied piano privately with Robert Lehrbaumer in Vienna, in 2015 with Xiao-Mei Zhu in Paris, and since 2016 with Gordon Fergus-Thompson in London. He has won awards and honourable mentions in competitions (Concertino Praga, the International Piano Competition B. Smetana Competition of Conservatories, Zdenek Fibich International Competition in the interpretation of melodrama). He periodically records contemporary Czech music for Czech Radio, e.g. in 2019, he completed a  recording of complete piano works by Rudolf Karel. In 2015 he released a CD of complete songs for soprano and piano by Viktor Ullman with soprano Irena Troupova. He regularly performs at international music festivals (Prague Spring, Věčná naděje, Junge Kunstler Beyreuth etc.).

In 2006 he was awarded the first prize at the Composers Competition “Generation“ for the piece “… in seven days I will send rain on the Earth …”, and in 2007 at the same competition he again won first prize for the composition “Gradation for organ.” In 2008 he received the ‘Audience’s Prize’ for the composition “Chalomot jehudi’im”, a year later receiving the Prize of Gideon Klein for the same composition. In 2010, his melodrama “Prague Walker” was awarded 2nd prize in the Competition for Young Artists, announced by the City District Prague 1. For his music to accompany the silent film “The Child of the Ghetto”, Jan received the ‘Audience’s Prize’ in the 2011 NuBerg competition. His compositions have been commissioned by festivals and competitions (such as the International Festival of Concert Melodrama, Viktor Ullmann festival Český Těšín, Prague Spring Competition etc.), and performed by leading Czech soloists (such as clarinettist Irvin Venyš and the percussionist Markéta Mazourová) as well as chamber ensembles and orchestras (e.g., Nederlands Blazers Ensemble, Epoque quartet; BERG Orchestra; Prague Philharmonia; Prague Philharmonic Choir). In 2021, Jan co-established the Lieder Company association which aims to promote art song recitals and repertoire.

www.jan-dusek.com