Jury
Tom Krause - bass-baritone
The Finnish baritone, Tom Krause, had begun studying to become a psychiatrist, and obtained a medical degree from Helsinki University. But he gave it up to study singing. He received his training in Helsinki, and later at the Vienna Music Academy and in Berlin.
Since his debut in Berlin in 1957, Tom Krause has established himself as a leading baritone with a vast repertoire, ranging from Bach to Messiaen. He was with the Deutsche Oper Berlin for three years and has been a member of the Hamburg State Opera since 1962, where he has created the leading role in the world premiers of various modern operas such as The Golden Ram and Hamlet. He has also appeared as guest with most of the leading operas in Europe, including La Scala, Vienna, London, Berlin, Munich, Copenhagen, Brussels, Amsterdam and Rome.
Tom Krause was awarded the Harriet Cohen Bach Prize for his singing in Britten’s War Requiem in London. In 1963, he made his debut in America at Tanglewood with Boston Symphony Orchestra in the American premiere of this work. He also sang it at the Carnegie Hall. Since then, his career has lead him to all great American and European theatres, in London, Berlin, Vienna, Milan, and Paris where he sang The Marriage of Figaro, Les Contes d'Hoffmann, La Concrentola, Parisfal, Elektra, Cosi fan Tutte, etc. at the Garnier Opera House, and more recently The Queen of Spades, Katya Kabanova, and Saint Francois d’Assise at the Bastille Opera House. He has sung at the music festivals in Bayreuth, Glyndebourne, Tanglewood, Vienna, Baalbeck, and at the City of London Festival. He was named ‘Kammersänger’ in Hamburg in 1967 and in the same year he made his very successful Metropolitan Opera debut in the role of Count Almaviva.
Tom Krause has performed oratorio, and sung in Lieder recitals many times. At the end of the 1960’s he was also under contract with the Metropolitan Opera, as well as with the Hamburg State Opera. Among his more important roles are Don Giovanni, Count Almaviva, Amonastro, Germont, Don Carlos (Forza del Destino), Escamillo, Malatesta, Oreste (Elerktra), Marcello and Nick Shadow.
Tom Krause also performed on stage St François at the 1998 Salzburg Festival and at the Luzern Festival (in concert version). In 1999, he will return to Paris to sing Titurel in Parsifal. Tom Krause is regularly invited to the Salzburg Festival as well as the Savolinna Festival.
Tom Krause did many great recordings, including not only opera, but melodies as well (Brahms, Schumann, Moussorgksi, Schubert, Sibelius). His numerous recordings have won him wide acclaim.
Tom Krause is teaching in Hamburg and is member of numerous Voice Competitions through the world.
Zdena Kloubová - soprano
Zdena Kloubová is one of the most successful Czech opera singers. She graduated from the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague in 1986. She became a regular soloist with the Prague State Opera in 1992, and a year later with Prague National Theatre.
Her repertoire includes more than twenty lead coloratura and lyrical roles in operas. She has collaborated with such prominent orchestras as Prague Symphony Orchestra and Czech Radio Symphony Orchestra, Czech Philharmonic, Liverpool symphony Orchestra and Chicago Sinfonietta, and has performed in many countries including Japan, USA, France, Germany, Italy and England under such renowned conductors as Aldo Ceccato, Gaetano Delogu, Jiří Bělohlávek, Martin Turnovský and Sir Charles Mackerras.
She is invited as a guest to many native and abroad musical festivals. In 2004 she performed successfully on prestigious musical festival BBS Proms Concert in London’s Royal Albert Hall. Her recordings include more than twenty compact discs. www.triartmanagement.cz/kloubova/
Jan Chalupecký - conductor
Conductor Jan Chalupecký, graduate of the Prague Conservatory (specialization cello), started his professional artistic path as a member of the orchestra and eventually conductor of the Prague Chamber Opera in the years 1990-1993. In the 1993/1994 season he starts to work in the National Theater in Prague (NT) as the assistant of the phenomenal Czech conductor Zdeňěk Košler. From 1994 he was progressively featured in the NT behind the conductor’s stand in fifteen operas. In April 2004 for the NT he studied the world premier of Martin Smolka’s opera Nagano. With the opera ensemble of the NT he also appeared in foreign tours in Japan, Hong Kong, Slovakia and Hungary. A total of three times he appeared in the prestigious international Prague Spring festival.
Besides working in the NT he also cooperates as a guest with other ensembles. In particular with the Mozart Opera, Theatre in Ústí nad Labem and the Prague State Opera. In the years 2000-2004 he studied for the festival "Loket cultural summer“ open-air productions of the operas Rusalka, Nabucco, Carmen and Rigoletto.
Besides opera he also applies himself to a symphonic repertoire and recording. In the years 1997-1999 he worked as chief conductor of the Plzeň Philharmonic. He has cooperated with the Deutsches Kammer Orchester, the ensemble Czech Chamber Soloists, the Prague Symphony Orchestra, the Moravian Philharmonic, the Brno State Philharmonic, and the Prague Chamber Philharmonic.
Jiří Kotouč - professor at the Prague Conservatory
He was born in Prague and studied at the Prague Conservatory (singing, percussion, early instruments and conducting) under professors Lad. Vachulka, Albert Pek, Jar. Horák, Jar. Obenberger and others. He continued to study singing with Růžena Židová, a pupil of Fernando Carpi, Ric. Muti and Marcello Panni provided him with consultation in the field of conducting. He took part in a long-term seminar on early music in Bruges in 1973. Already in 1963 during the course of his studies, he founded the CAMERATA NOVA ensemble and in 1966 the chamber ensemble COLLEGIUM FLAUTO DOLCE. He has played concerts all over the world with these vocal and instrumental ensembles - a random sample being: Venice, Rome, Naples, Athens, Madrid, Barcelona, Paris, Geneva, Brussels, Bruges, Berlin, Stuttgart, Vienna, Innsbruck, Salzburg, Copenhagen, Drottingholm, Stockholm, Warsaw, Moscow, Riga, Vilnius, Tallin, Budapest, Bucharest, Sofia, many cities in the Czechoslovakia of that time, but also in the Australian city of Perth, Havana, Vancouver, Whitehorse and many others. As a cembalist, he cooperated with the Prague Chamber Orchestra Without Conductor, the Prague Madrigalists, Virtuosi di Praga and the Mozart Opera etc. In the 1980s, he began to mainly conduct Baroque opera (Pergolesi - La serva patrona, Purcell - Dido and Aeneas, Monteverdi - Ballo delle ingrate, Combattimento di Tancredi, Handel - Alcina, Rodelinda, Rinaldo, Bononcini - Astarto and Vivaldi - Orlando furioso) as well as many oratorios and church music at home and abroad.
He has taught singing at the Valtice Summer School (he was also already the artistic director there), at the Music University in Bavaria and at the Týn School and he is currently teaching at the Prague Conservatory. His graduates work in large opera houses at home and abroad. (Ludm. Vernerová, Pavla Vykopalová, Marie Fajtová, Eva Müllerová, Hana Blažíková, Tomáš Černý, Martin Šrejma, Matěj Chadima and others). He is the artistic director of the Prague Mozart Opera, which performs Mozart’s operas in the Estates Theatre during the summer season. He has recorded the CD “Amore, Venere, Tersicore” for the Italian company Nuova Era and “Hudba pražské Lorety” (Music of the Loretta in Prague) and “Dávná hudební kratochvíle” (Ancient musical distractions) for Rotag. Some Baroque operas have also been released as live recordings.
Pavel Horáček - bass
Pavel Horáček is alumnus of the Prague Conservatory, at class of prof. Jaroslav Horáček. He became a soloist with the Prague National Theater in 1978 and after the Prague opera’s houses split with Prague State Opera. He is regular soloist with J. K. Tyl Opera Pilsen since 1998. He carried of his first award on international sang competitions in 1975 on Dvorak Competition in Karlovy Vary (1st prize) then in 1977, in Geneva (3rd prize) and in 1980, in Munich (3rd prize). He took two external residencies in Siena at prof. Giorgia Favareta and in Salzburg, at prof. Ettora Campogallianiho.
His wide repertoire includes opera parts from pieces of B. Smetana - Kecal (The Bartered Bride), Rarach (Devils Wall), Bonifác (Secret); W. A. Mozart - Don Giovanni (Don Giovanni), Figaro (Wedding of Figaro); B. Bartók - Bluebeard (Bluebeard); Ch. Gounod - Mephistopheles (Faust and Margueritte); G. Verdi - Ramphis (Aida) and others. As a soloist of the National Theatre in Prague he sang in Denmark, Finland, Japan, Germany, Switzerland and Russia. He also perform as an abroad guest in Germany - Opera Berlin (W. A. Mozart - Wedding of Figaro, Figaro), USA - Carnegie Hall (B. Smetana - Libuše, Lutobor), Netherlands (W. A. Mozart - Don Giovanni, Don Giovanni) and Austria (W. A. Mozart - Don Giovanni, Don Giovanni; G. Verdi - Rigoletto, Monterone).
PhDr. Ivan Ruml - musicologist
The Czech newspaperman, opera producer and author of Radio and TV documentaries and programmes Ivan Ruml was born in České Budějovice. He studied Prague Conservatory /piano/ and Philosophical Faculty of Charles University /history of music and theatre/. He was editor of Czechoslovak Press Agency, music producer of Czechoslovak Radio, music producer of gramophone company Supraphon, chief editor of the periodical Musica, programme adviser of Czech television and music producer of Czech Radio. Currently he is responsible for the Saturdays transmissions from Metropolitan Opera in New York and the presentation of opera programmes from the offer of the European Broadcast Union on the channel Czech Radio 3 - Vltava. He prepares as an author own radio programmes The Beautiful Voices which has been broadcast regularly every Sunday at 1 pm for six years. He collaborates with Czech television as a screen-writer and spokesman of the International Television Festival Golden Prague. He wrote and produced the documentary about the history of this festival, documentary about the legendary Czech opera Janáček´s singer Libuše Domanínská, TV programmes about the history of Smetana´s Bartered Bride and Libuše and one hour interview with the famous soprano Dame Joan Sutherland in the cycle Europeans. He is the author of the numerous newspaper and magazine articles about classical music.