Adeste pastores

Swiss soprano Martina Janková, born in Czech Republic, has been a member of the Zurich Opera House since 1998 and is one of the leading Mozart performers of today. She has appeared in Zurich, at the Salzburg Festival, the Wiener Festwochen, and with the Cleveland Orchestra in the roles of Despina (Così fan tutte), Celia (Lucio Silla), Pamina (Die Zauberflöte), Zerlina (Don Giovanni), Susanna and Cherubino (Le nozze di Figaro), and Aminta (Il re pastore). Her performance of Aminta (2012) and Despina (2013) at the Salzburg Festival were highly praised by the audience and the press.

Other roles with the Zurich Company include Angelica (Orlando), Vixen/Young Vixen (The Cunning little Vixen), Nanetta (Falstaff), Marzelline (Fidelio), Gretel (Hänsel und Gretel) and Ighino (Palestrina). Additional engagements have taken her to the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris, the Prague National Theater and State Opera, and the Grand Thèâtre de Genève where she performed works by Beethoven, Mozart, Janáček, Rossini, and Monteverdi. Her performances in scenic productions of all Mozart/Da Ponte operas with Franz Welser-Möst and the Cleveland Orchestra were highly praised. In May 2014 Martina Janková had a great success in a new production of The Cunning little Vixen again with the Cleveland Orchestra and Franz Welser-Möst.

Janková has worked with many of the world’s leading conductors and orchestras on the concert stage, including Berlin and Munich Philharmonic Orchestras, Radio Symphony Orchestras in Frankfurt and Berlin, Deutsches Symphonieorchester Berlin, Israel Philharmonic, Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra, Concentus Musicus Vienna, Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestra La Scintilla of the Zurich Opera House, the Budapest Festival Orchestra, the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra, and the Orchestre des Champs-Elysées under conductors such as Jiří Bělohlávek, Ivor Bolton, Bertrand de Billy, Riccardo Chailly, Iván Fisher, Adam Fischer, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Daniele Gatti, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Philippe Herreweghe, Marek Janowski, Sir Charles Mackerras, Andrea Marcon, Sir Neville Marriner, Ingo Metzmacher, Sir Simon Rattle and Franz Welser-Möst.

She gave recitals at the London Wigmore Hall, the Prague Spring Festival, the Rheingau Music Festival, the Festival Musiques en Été in Geneva, the styriarte Festival in Graz as well as at the Salzburg Festival and the Zurich Opera House.

Recent highlights include a tour with Rossini´s La Cenerentola/Clorinda with the Musiciens du Prince and Gianluca Capuano in Switzerland, Spain and Italy, Haendel´s Messiah in Barcelona and Vic with the Zurich Chamber Orchestra and Daniel Hope, King Arthur by Henry Purcell at the Theater an der Wien with Concentus Musicus Wien and Stefan Gottfried, Schubert´s Mass in E-flat major in Cleveland with Franz Welser-Möst, Mendelssohns Lobgesang at Milan´s Scala with Cornelius Meister as well as Rossini´s La Cenerentola/Clorinda with Cecilia Bartoli and the Orchestra La Scintilla under the baton of Gianluca Capuano at the Zurich Opera House and Mendelssohn´s Lobgesang with The Clevleand Orchestra and Franz Welser-Möst. With the Ensemble Florea and Marek Sryncl, she presented a baroque programme called “Luce eterno” (a baroque voyage to Rome).

Her CD releases include several solo recitals, the most recent ones being a solo-album with Songs by Bohuslav Martinů (rewarded with a Diapason d’Ort) and the album Prague-Vienna: A journey in songs with songs by Tomášek, Koželuh, Mozart, Haydn and others. Further records of the label Supraphon include the album Recollection featuring songs by Joseph Haydn, a solo CD with songs from Mussorgsky, Dvorák, Richard Strauss and Schoeck as well as Moravian Folk Songs by Janácek and Bach Cantatas with Collegium 1704 under Václav Luks. Martina Janková can be seen on DVD as Tilly (Simplicius) by Johann Strauss, Zerlina (Don Giovanni), Susanna (Le nozze di Figaro), Despina (Così fan tutte), and Angelica (Orlando) by Handel, as well as Angelo in Händel’s Oratorio La Resurrezione. In summer 2016, the DVD of the Salzburg Festival´s production of Le nozze di Figaro has been released, with a brilliant Martina Janková in the role of Susanna.

Czech bass singer Jaromír Nosek graduated from the Faculty of Education of the Charles University in Prague, the Prague Conservatory (Prof. Jiří Kotouč) and from the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (Prof. Roman Janál and Prof. Katarína Bachmannová). He has received scholarships for educational stays at Dartington International Summer School, at Accademia Chigiana in Siena and at Conservatorio Santa Cecilia in Rome.

He has been collaborating with renowned Czech and foreign orchestras and vocal ensembles, such as Collegium 1704, Cappella Mariana, Prague Symphony Orchestra FOK, Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, Concerto Palatino, Gli Angeli Geneve, La Venexiana, Wrocław Baroque Ensemble, Doulce Mémoire and Lautten Compagney. His soloist career includes the cooperation with conductors such as Václav Luks, José Cura, Stefano Montanari, Rudolf Lutz, or Christophe Rousset. Jaromír has performed at a number of international festivals, including the Prague Spring, Salzburger Festspiele, Festival d’Ambronay, Settimana Musicale Senese, Festival Oude Muziek Utrecht, Bach Festival Montréal, Festival del Centro Histórico de la Ciudad de México, etc.

As an opera singer, he has performed both home and abroad; he had the lead role in Antonio Vivaldi’s serenata La Senna Festeggiante, and the opera audience might have seen him in a number of other roles: Claudio Monteverdi’s Caronte (L’Orfeo) and Seneca (L’incoronazione di Poppea), Ortensio in Antonio Caldara’s L’Amor non ha legge, or Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Figaro (Le nozze di Figaro), Il Commendatore (Don Giovanni) and Sarastro (Die Zauberflöte).

He has contributed to the recording of over 40 CD’s, a number of which has been nominated or has received prestigious international prizes, such as Choc du Monde de la Musique or ICMA (International classical music awards).

In 2020 Jaromír founded the ANMOEN chamber music ensemble that specializes in the interpretation and sensitive interconnection between early baroque and contemporary music.

Since it was founded in 1997, the Prague ensemble Collegium Marianum has focused on presenting the music of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, especially by composers who were born or active in central Europe. One of the few professional ensembles specializing in this field in the Czech Republic, Collegium Marianum not only gives musical performances, but regularly also stages scenic projects.
 
The ensemble works under the artistic leadership of the traverso player Jana Semerádová who also regularly appears as a soloist with some of the eminent European orchestras. Her active research together with her study of Baroque gesture, declamation and dance, has enabled Semerádová to broaden the profile of the Collegium Marianum ensemble and present multi-genre projects featuring Baroque dance and theater. Her unique, thematic programming has resulted in a number of modern-day premieres of historical music presented each year. The ensemble has collaborated with renowned European conductors, soloists, directors, and choreographers such as Andrew Parrott, Hana Blažíková, Damien Guillon, Peter Kooij, Sergio Azzolini, François Fernandez, Simona Houda-Šaturová, Benjamin Lazar, Jean-Denis Monory, and Gudrun Skamletz.
 
Collegium Marianum has received critical acclaim both at home and abroad. The ensemble has appeared extensively on the Czech Radio and TV as well as on the radio abroad. It regularly performs at music festivals and on prestigious stages both in the Czech Republic and elsewhere in Europe, including Tage Alter Musik Regensburg, Bachfest Leipzig, Potsdam Festspiele, Mitte Europa, Festival de Sablé, Bolzano Festival, Palau Música Barcelona, Pražské jaro, or Concentus Moraviae.
 
In 2008 the ensemble started a successful collaboration with the Supraphon label. Within the “Music from Eighteenth-Century Prague” series it has launched eight recordings with music by both well-known and lesser-known composers including J.D. Zelenka, F. Jiránek, J.J.I. Brentner and J.A. Sehling.

Flautist Jana Semerádová is a graduate of the Prague Conservatory, the Faculty of Philosophy, Charles University (Theory and Practice of Early Music), and the Royal Conservatory in the Hague, the Netherlands. She is also a laureate of the Magdeburg and Munich international competitions.
 
Jana Semerádová is the artistic director of Collegium Marianum and programming director of the concert cycle Baroque Soirées and the international music festival Summer Festivities of Early Music. She undertakes intensive archival research both at home and abroad and is engaged in ongoing study of Baroque gesture, declamation and dance. Many of her unique programmes are built around the interconnection of music and drama. Under her direction, Collegium Marianum stages several modern premieres each year. Jana Semerádová has a number of CDs to her name; her recordings with Collegium Marianum are featured as part of the successful series “Music from Eighteenth-Century Prague” on the Supraphon label, for which she has also recorded her two signature CDs “Solo for the King” and “Chaconne for the Princess“.
 
Jana Semerádová has performed at leading European concert venues and festivals (such as Bachfest Leipzig, Festival Oude Muziek Utrecht, Musikfestspiele Potsdam Sanssouci, Innsbrucker Festwochen, Händel-Festspiele Halle, Centre de musique baroque de Versailles, Festival de Sablé, the Prague Spring festival, Tage Alter Musik Regensburg, the Konzerthaus in Vienna and Berlin, Vratislavia Cantans a Palau de la Música Catalana), collaborated as a soloist with artists including Magdalena Kožená, Sergio Azzolini, Alfredo Bernardini, and Enrico Onofri, and regularly performs with the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, Il suonar parlante, Wrocławska Orkiestra Barokowa, Orkiestra Historyczna and Ars Antiqua Austria.
 
In 2015 she received her habilitation degree as an associate professor of flute from the Faculty of Music and Dance at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. In 2019 she was awarded the prize of the Prague Group of the Society for Arts and Sciences.