Prague Royal Philharmonic — Opening Concert
: An Evening in Prague

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.