Gloires Romaines

Chantal Santon Jeffery is acclaimed as one of the most accomplished French sopranos of the present day. As comfortable in the miniature of a consort song as in the lyric romantic repertoire, she has embodied numerous roles in the opera, from Mozart (Donna Anna, Donna Elvira, Fiordiligi, the Countess Almaviva, Sandrina) to the contemporary repertoire (a unanimous press praised her Lolo Ferrari in the opera of the same name) including Britten (the Governess in Lille Opera’s The Turn of the Screw), Campra (Herminie in Tancrède), Gassman (Stonatrilla in L’opera seria), Purcell (King Arthur, Dido and Aeneas), Bizet (Frasquita in Carmen at the Théâtre des Champs Elysées), Hervé (Mélusine in Les chevaliers de la table ronde), Boismortier (Altisidore in Don Quichotte chez la Duchesse), Haydn (the title role of Armida), Rameau (La Gloire in Le temple de la Gloire in Berkeley) etc.
 
She has been invited to sing with such prestigious orchestras as Le Concert Spirituel, Les Talens Lyriques, the Orchestre National de France, the Orchestre de Chambre de Paris, I Barocchisti, Les Ambassadeurs, Le Cercle de l’Harmonie, Les Siècles, Opera Fuoco, the Brussels Philharmonic, Pygmalion, the Hong Kong Philharmonic. She has recently performed in prestigious venues in Europe, America, and in Asia.
 
Among her many recordings (more than 50) are Baroque, Classical, and Romantic French operas and oratorios (often supported by the Fondation Bru and the Centre de musique baroque de Versailles) but also works by Mozart, Martinez, Stradella, Da Gagliano, Purcell, J. Ch. Bach etc.
 
Recent releases: “Brillez, astres nouveaux!”, a recital of French Baroque opera arias with the Orfeo Orchestra, under the baton of György Vashegyi; Maître Peronilla by Offenbach (in the role of Alvarès) with the Orchestre National de France, conducted by Markus Poschner; Jephté by Montéclair (in the role of Iphise) and Dardanus by Rameau (in the role of Venus), again with the Orfeo Orchestra.

Vojtěch Semerád is a graduate of the Prague Conservatory, the Faculty of Pedagogy of Charles University in Prague (choirmastering) and the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique in Paris (baroque violin with François Fernandez). He is a finalist of the Telemann-Wettbewerb International Competition in Magdeburg. He has been trained as a singer since 2010 throughout private lessons (with teachers such as Chantal Santon Jeffery, Peter Kooij, Poppy Holden) and masterclasses.
 
As a solo singer, Vojtěch Semerád is invited by renowned ensembles such as Les Arts Florissants, Ensemble Correspondances, Wroclaw Baroque Orchestra, Vox Luminis or Huelgas Ensemble, with whom he performs at major international venues and festivals such as Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Park Avenue Armory New York, Logan Center Chicago, Concertgebouw Rotterdam, Wigmore Hall London, Palau de la Música Barcelona, etc. He has taken part in several opera productions, and has recently sung Histoires Sacrés by M.-A. Charpentier, the role of Acis in G. F. Handel’s Acis and Galatea, the role of Atys in J. B. Lully’s Atys and the role of Pythonisse in Charpentier’s David et Jonathas. He is regularly invited as the Evangelist in passions and oratorios by J. S. Bach.
 
Vojtěch Semerád is the artistic director of the vocal ensemble Cappella Mariana, with which he performs forgotten works of vocal polyphony of Middle Ages, Renaissance and Baroque era. Today the ensemble is regularly invited to the prestigious festivals a.o. Oude Muziek Utrecht, Laus Polyphoniae Antwerpen, Voices of Passion Leuven, MAfestival Brugge, Tage Alter Musik Regensburg, Innsbrucker Festwochen, Prague Spring and Concentus Moraviae.
 
He has recorded for Deutsche Gramophon, Naïve, Harmonia Mundi, Passacaille and Supraphon, in total more than 30 recordings, and also regularly records for Czech Radio.
 
Vojtěch Semerád is also a researcher, focusing on the discovery of 15th, 16th and 17th century vocal music in Central Europe.

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.