Amabile

The concert activities of Jiří Bárta, one of the foremost cellists of his generation, have taken him to most European countries, North & South America, Australia, Japan and Korea as well as to Africa and the Middle East. Jiří Bárta studied in Prague with Josef Chuchro, in Cologne with Boris Pergamenschikow and in Los Angeles with Eleonore Schoenfeld. After winning a number of national competitions, he was awarded the Europäische Förderpreis für Musik in Dresden and the Rostropovich-Hammer Award in Los Angeles. As a concerto soloist or in recitals, he has performed in such venues as Berlin Philharmonic Hall, Carnegie Weill Recital Hall, Los Angeles Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, London Wigmore Hall, Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, Tokyo’s Suntory and Casals Halls, Seoul Arts Center and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, with instrumentalists including Quatuor Ebene, Ilya Gringolts, Chloe Hanslip, Martin Kasík, Piers Lane, Konstantin Lifschitz, Hamish Milne, Vadim Repin, Dmitri Sitkovetski, Josef Suk and Antoine Tamestit, with orchestras such as the Czech Philharmonic, the Berlin Symphony Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and with conductors including Jiří Bělohlávek, Charles Dutoit, Jakub Hrůša, Gianandrea Noseda, Libor Pešek, Gennadi Rozhdestvenski and Maxim Shostakovich.

As a recording artist for the Supraphon label, Jiří Bárta has released Dvořák’s Cello Concerto with the Czech Philharmonic under Jiří Bělohlávek, a live recording commemorating Dvořák’s centenary, which was televised throughout Europe on Arte. His CDs with Kodaly’s Cello works and the concertos of Martinů/Foerster/Novák respectively received Gramophone’s Editor’s Choice award. His other Supraphon recordings include the Bach Cello Suites and Shostakovich Cello Concertos, and he has also recorded two discs for Hyperion including the sonatas of Moscheles, Hummel and Rubinstein. He collaborated with the mezzosoprano Magdalena Kožená on her Deutsche Grammophon Lieder project, for which she received a Gramophone Award. Jiří Bárta was also featured in the Czech TV documentary “Můj pokus o mistrovský opus (Bárta versus the Bach Cello Suites)”, which won the 2015 Prix CIRCOM in Ireland.

An enthusiastic chamber musician, Jiri Bárta co-founded the Kutná Hora Chamber Music Festival, which encompasses the worlds of contemporary and classical music and gained instant recognition as one of the top classical music festivals in the Czech Republic.

One of the most prominent personalities of the international early music scene, flautist Jana Semerádová is a world-class soloist, conductor, musicologist and creator of unique artistic projects. A graduate of the Prague Conservatory, the Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Prague (Theory and Practice of Early Music), and the Koninklijk Conservatorium 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 contemporary premieres of musical works 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, Oude Muziek Utrecht, Musikfestspiele Potsdam Sanssouci, Innsbrucker Festwochen der Alten Musik, Händel-Festspiele in Halle, Festival de Sablé, Prague Spring, Tage Alter Musik Regensburg, Wratislavia Cantans, Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles, the Konzerthaus in Vienna and Berlin, and Palau de la Música Catalana), collaborated as a soloist with various 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. Since 2024, she has been teaching at the Kryszstof Penderiecki Academy of Music in Kraków.
 
In 2019 she was awarded the prize of the Prague Group of the Society for Arts and Sciences. A year later, Jana Semerádová and Erich Traxler were nominated for the Anděl Awards (category Classics) for their CD “Chaconne for the Princess”. In December 2024, Jana Semerádová was awarded the prestigious French Order of Arts and Letters (Ordre des Arts et des Lettres), at the grade of Knight (Chevalier).

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.