Prague Royal Philharmonic
An Evening in Vienna

The Prague Philharmonic Orchestra was founded in 1995 under the direction of German conductor Friedemann Riehle. Since then, the orchestra has made numerous recordings of classical music and film scores, in collaboration with labels such as Decca, EMI, and Sony BMG, as well as with various international film studios.

Internationally renowned soloists, such as tenor Jonas Kaufmann and cellist Sol Gabetta, have recorded CDs with the orchestra.

The orchestra performs New Year’s concerts conducted by Riehle and has also appeared at the Vienna State Opera, in all major German concert halls, at the Royal Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, and in a special concert broadcast internationally from the Burj Khalifa in Dubai.

Heiko Mathias Förster, born in 1966 in Schwerin, in northeastern Germany in the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, studied piano, percussion, and conducting at the Hans Eisler Academy of Music in Berlin.

He has enjoyed a distinguished career as a conductor for over three decades. He made his debut in 1989 at the helm of the Brandenburg Symphony Orchestra, before moving on to the Munich Symphony Orchestra, which he led for eight years. As principal conductor of the New Westphalian Philharmonic Orchestra, he conducted numerous Czech orchestras during that time. He was also invited to conduct several productions at the Prague State Opera, including Madame Butterfly, Otello, and La Traviata, collaborating with renowned soloists.

In 2014, Heiko Mathias Förster was appointed music director of the Janáček Philharmonic Orchestra in Ostrava for a five-year term. During this time, he founded the Prague Royal Philharmonic with outstanding Czech musicians, an orchestra that immediately won over its audience. Today, the Prague Royal Philharmonic performs regularly in the Czech Republic (Smetana Hall), as well as in the most prestigious venues in Germany (Berlin, Munich, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Dresden, etc.), Austria (Vienna, Bregenz), and Switzerland (Zurich, Lucerne, etc.), accompanying renowned soloists.

Invited to conduct around the world, Heiko Mathias Förster has led numerous international orchestras, including: the Orquestra Sinfónica de Santiago de Chile, the Israel Symphony Orchestra, the NDR Radio Philharmonic Orchestra of Hanover, the Czech National Symphony Orchestra, the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestra Sinfonica di Palermo, the Bavarian State Orchestra, the Taiwan National Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra del Teatro del Gran Liceo in Barcelona, the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, the China National Symphony Orchestra in Beijing, the Duisburg Philharmonic Orchestra, the Munich Radio Orchestra, the Bremen Philharmonic Orchestra, the Halle State Orchestra, the Munich Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz Orchestra, the Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra of Bratislava, the Württemberg Philharmonic Orchestra of Reutlingen, the Berlin Symphony Orchestra, the Ulsan Philharmonic Orchestra, the Neubrandenburg Philharmonic Orchestra, the Baden-Baden Philharmonic Orchestra, the Brandenburg State Orchestra of Frankfurt, the KBS Symphony Orchestra of Seoul, the Stuttgart Philharmonic Orchestra, the Weimar State Orchestra, the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra, the Dortmund Philharmonic Orchestra, the Gwangju Symphony Orchestra, the WDR Radio Orchestra Cologne, the Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra, the Tyrolean Symphony Orchestra Innsbruck, and the Tonkünstler Orchestra Vienna.

In recent seasons, Heiko Mathias Förster has conducted symphony concerts and operas around the world: in Seoul, Bratislava, Berlin, Beijing, Hull, Zurich, Munich, Santander, Suwon, Leeds, Rome, Essen, Tokyo, Cardiff, Shenzhen, Dortmund, Tongeren, Macau, Logroño, Bristol, Palermo, Frankfurt, Hangzhou, Salzburg, Hamburg, Bilbao, Grafenegg, Daegu, Baden-Baden, Brno, Zaragoza, Bregenz, Taipei, Edinburgh, Stuttgart, Katowice, Cambridge, Vienna, Milan, and London.

Many of his concerts are broadcast on radio and television. Heiko Mathias Förster regularly releases new CDs. With his various orchestras, he has recorded for Universal Music, Sony Music, Brilliant Classics, Gramola, Naxos, and Solo Musica. He has accompanied soloists such as Mischa Maisky, Alfredo Perl, Maximilian Hornung, Martin Kasík, Pavel Šporcl, Reinhold Friedrich, Lars Vogt, Julian Rachlin, Justus Frantz, Sophia Jaffé, Ivo Kahánek, Arabella Steinbacher, Thomas Albertus Irnberger, Alessandro Taverna, Shirley Brill, Joseph Moog, Sayaka Shoji, Matthias Kirschnereit, Natalia Gutman, Herbert Schuch, Mona Asuka, Stewart Goodyear, Claire Huangci, Natalie Clein, Ewa Kupiec, Alban Gerhardt, Jennifer Pike, Gábor Boldoczki, Chloe Hanslip, Olga Scheps, Midori, and many others.

In 2022, Heiko Mathias Förster was appointed Music Director of Baden-Baden and Principal Conductor of its Philharmonic Orchestra, the oldest orchestra in Europe.

Karen Su, a renowned violinist from Los Angeles, captivates audiences around the world with her exceptional artistry and the emotional intensity of her performances. Born into a family of musicians, she began her musical journey under her father’s guidance before continuing her training with Igor and Vesna Gruppman at the Rotterdam Conservatory. She began her degree program there at just 15 years old and graduated summa cum laude. Her artistic development reached new heights when she became an artist-in-residence at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel, where she was mentored by the legendary Augustin Dumay.

Praised by critics for her “confidence and verve… warmth and intensity” (*The Strad*), Karen Su has won numerous prestigious awards, including first prize at the Queen Elisabeth Competition, a special prize at the Wieniawski International Violin Competition, and first prizes at the Lipizer and Princess Astrid International Competitions.

Highlights of his past and upcoming engagements as a soloist include concerts with renowned orchestras such as the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of Liège, the Belgian National Orchestra, the Boca del Río Philharmonic Orchestra, the Royal Chamber Orchestra of Wallonia, the Trondheim Symphony Orchestra & Opera, Sinfonia Rotterdam, the Guanajuato Symphony Orchestra, and the Amadeus Chamber Orchestra of Polish Radio.

Her international career has taken her to some of the most prestigious concert halls: the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, Flagey (Brussels), de Doelen (Rotterdam), TivoliVredenburg (Utrecht), Foro Boca, the Teatro del Bicentenario, the Rudolfinum in Prague, the Phillips Collection (Washington, D.C.), Arsonic (Mons), Auckland Town Hall, Salle Bourgie, Filharmonia Poznańska, Fujian Grand Theatre, and Olavshallen in Trondheim.

A passionate chamber musician, Karen has collaborated with renowned artists such as Augustin Dumay, Gary Hoffman, Jian Wang, Lorenzo Gatto, Miguel da Silva, and Jean-Claude Vanden Eynden. She also performs in a violin-piano duo with Dutch pianist Ruben Plazier, with whom she organizes the “Experience Klassiek” concert series. Karen Su currently plays a magnificent 1747 Nicolo Gagliano violin, generously loaned to her by an anonymous donor.

Karen is also a visiting professor at the Royal Conservatory of Mons in Belgium, where she teaches her own class, guiding undergraduate and graduate students in their artistic and technical development.

Source: karensuviolin.com

Miguel da Silva began his studies at a very young age at the Conservatoire National de Région de Reims, in his hometown. He then entered the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris, where he studied under Serge Collot. There, he was awarded the First Prize in chamber music and the First Prize in viola, the latter by unanimous decision with a special vote from the jury.
In 1985, he won the First Grand Prix at the Paris International Chamber Music Competition in the sonata category; he joined the Paris Opera Orchestra.
Since his teenage years, Miguel da Silva has been passionate about the string quartet. He left the Paris Opera in 1987 and founded the Ysaÿe Quartet with three of his friends. He moved to Cologne to work with the Amadeus Quartet.
Numerous international competitions (Portsmouth, Evian), in which the quartet won First Prizes, paved the way for the Ysaÿe Quartet’s international career in Japan and the United States (Carnegie Hall, Metropolitan Museum in New York), as well as in Israel and Europe (Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris, Wigmore Hall in London, in Berlin, and at the Lockenhaus, Stresa, and Salzburg festivals…). This brilliant career came to an end in early 2014, when the quartet ceased its activities, with each member pursuing their own individual paths.
In chamber music, Miguel da Silva’s partners include none other than: Michel Portal, Jean-Claude Pennetier, Paul Meyer, Leonidas Kavakos, Pierre Amoyal, Nikita Boriso-Glebsky, Antonio Meneses, Augustin Dumay, Henri Demarquette, Truls Mork, Gary Hoffmann, Pascal Rogé, Emmanuel Pahud, Jean-François Heisser, Christophe Coin…
Miguel da Silva has also been a guest soloist with the Paris Chamber Orchestra, the Polish Chamber Orchestra, the Auvergne Chamber Orchestra, the Franz Liszt Orchestra of Budapest, Sinfonia Varsovia, the Montpellier Orchestra, and the Pamplona Orchestra, under the baton of conductors such as Peter Csaba, Jean-Jacques Kantorow, Arie van Beck, and François Xavier Roth.
Furthermore, the educational imperative was a matter of course for him. In 1993, at the Conservatoire National de Région de Paris (now the Conservatoire à Rayonnement Régional), Miguel da Silva led his friends from the Ysaÿe Quartet in establishing a specialized string quartet class: it was a first in France. Their French students (Ébène, Modigliani, Voce, Hermès) as well as international students (Aviv from Israel, Incanto from Switzerland, Différence from Latvia) have since won most of the major international string quartet competitions.
In addition to this string quartet class at the CRR, for which he is now primarily responsible, Miguel da Silva leads advanced masterclasses at the academies in Villecroze, Aldeburgh, the Maurice Ravel Academy in Saint-Jean-de-Luz, Banff (Canada), Savonlinna (Finland), and the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.
He is the artistic advisor to the Villecroze Music Academy.
Since September 2009—after teaching viola and chamber music for two seasons at the Hochschule in Lübeck, succeeding Walter Levine—he has been appointed professor of viola at the Geneva University of Music and teaches regularly at the ECMA (European Chamber Music Association) and the Summer Academy of the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna (ISA).
Miguel da Silva is Artist-in-Residence at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel in Belgium, alongside baritone José van Dam, violinist Augustin Dumay, pianist Louis Lortie, cellist Gary Hoffman, and the Artemis Quartet.
Source: festivalravel.fr