Young musicians’ support is a fundamental part of the Czech Philharmonic activities. Regular visitors are well acquainted with projects such as Elementary Schools of the Arts and Czech Philharmonic, the Czech Student Philharmonic or Orchestral Academy, which is also open to foreign applicants, and where a good many new members of the Czech Philharmonic have been recruited.
The opportunity to grow such activities on an international level arrived in 2018 when the Czech Philharmonic joined the ECHO (European Concert Hall Organisation) project. This organisation operates under the auspices of the European Union and unites more than twenty significant European concert halls, among which are the Barbican in London, the Musikverein in Vienna or the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg. And right under this cooperation, there is the Classical Futures grant programme running that supports young musicians and their career development.
The key criteria for including a specific musician to the programme are being up to 35 years of age and a fairly developing career on domestic stages. The programme is also open to young people that do not come from the European Union countries but who have gained education in music here and one of the EU member countries is the base of their musical activities. Then, a concert hall or a musical institution will provide not only auspices in the form of its reputation to the guest musician, but also an accompanying programme that will enable the young artist to develop not only as an artist, but also in the fields of communication with media, audiences or students from local schools of the arts.
Masterclasses As Well As BBC Proms
Under the wings of the Czech Philharmonic, almost twenty young musicians have joined the project in the past three years. They have been introduced to the audiences as soloists in large orchestral cycles as well as in the Czech Chamber Music Society.
Among examples of accompanying activities, we can highlight masterclasses at the Prague Conservatory led by the trumpeter Támas Pálfalvi. The tenorist Patrick Grahl or the clarinetist Raphael Severe took part in preludes before concerts as well as aftertalks. The concert in which the trumpeter Selina Ott participated was broadcast with extraordinary success by the Czech Television as well as on social media. In addition, the soprano Elena Stikhina performed next to the Czech Philharmonic and Semyon Bychkov even at the London famous BBC Proms festival.
introduce herself at the traditional Open Air Concert right in this year’s June where she will perform famous opera arias. The Italian percussionist Simone Rubino is going to teach a masterclass at the Prague Conservatory and, at the famous New Year’s Concert of the Czech Philharmonic, the soprano Katharina Konradi is going to perform alongside the conductor Manfred Honeck. The performance of the rising star of violoncello, Sheku-Kanneh Mason from Great Britain, who is going to introduce himself in the programme with the conductor Jakub Hrůša and will also take part in the prelude prior to the concert, will be a great event.
You will find concerts added to the programme easily; in the pages of the programme guide as well as on our philharmonic website, they are accompanied with the Classical Futures as well as ECHO logos. Join us and support future stars of the world stages!
