Czech Chamber Music Society • Martinů Voices

Soprano Karolína Levková is the winner of the 2022 Antonín Dvořák International Singing
Competition in Karlovy Vary and of many other competitions. She began studying classical singing at
the Janáček Conservatoire in Ostrava under the guidance of Marta Jirásková. Later, she graduated
from the Ostrava University Faculty of Arts in the studio of Eva Dřízgová. Already during her studies
at the conservatoire, she learned several opera roles (Gold-Stripe the Fox, Dido, Rusalka), and she is
now expanding her repertoire at the two venues of the National Moravian-Silesian Theatre in
Ostrava: the Jiří Myron Theatre and the Antonín Dvořák Theatre. Since the 2023/2024 season, she
has also been performing at the National Theatre in Prague, appearing as Giannetta (L'elisir d'amore)
and Trudel (Tuttifäntchen). Besides appearing in operas, she also devotes herself to the concert
repertoire, performing with the Prague Philharmonic Choir and the Prague Philharmonia, for
example. She has appeared at prestigious festivals including Smetana’s Litomyšl, the Saint Wenceslas
Music Festival, and Les Musicales de Louvergny in France.

Martin Šrejma also became a laureate of the Antonín Dvořák International Singing Competition in
Karlovy Vary while still a student (Prague Conservatoire – Jiří Kotouč). In 2004 he received an award
from the National Theatre in Prague. After studies in Parma, Italy, he was engaged as a soloist with
the Opera of the National Theatre and the State Opera in Prague. He has performed important roles
in a broad repertoire from Mozart to Britten not only at Prague theatres, but also at the National

Theatre in Brno, the National Moravian-Silesian Theatre in Ostrava, the F. X. Šalda Theatre in Liberec,
and the J. K. Tyl Theatre in Pilsen. He is also well known abroad. On tour with the National Theatre,
he has introduced himself repeatedly to Japanese audiences; his individual journey in opera has also
taken him to Spain (Pollione in Norma), the Netherlands (Jeník in The Bartered Bride), Germany
(Alfred in Die Fledermaus), and Palermo (Michelis in The Greek Passion and Števa in Jenůfa). He often
performs in cantatas, oratorios, and operas, and on those occasions he collaborates with leading
Czech orchestras.

Baritone Roman Hoza is familiar to us not only from the concerts of Collegium 1704 and other early
music ensembles, but also from concert and opera projects with a broader scope. He studied in Brno
and Vienna, and he was a participant in the prestigious Young Singers Project at the Salzburg Festival
and in the opera studios of the Opera National de Lyon and the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in
Düsseldorf. In 2015 he made his debut at the National Theatre in Prague in the title role of Le nozze
de Figaro, and since then he has been a regular guest there. A year later he was engaged at the
National Theatre in Brno, where he played numerous major baritone roles (Don Giovanni, Guglielmo,
Rossini’s Figaro, Belcore, Escamillo, Danilo). He also works closely with the Deutsche Oper am Rhein
(as a regular ensemble member since 2020) and other opera houses abroad. He also focuses on the
concert and lieder repertoire, with which he has had a special relationship since having earned the
title of laureate at the Antonín Dvořák International Singing Competition in Karlovy Vary.

After finishing his studies at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, actor Jan Šťastný (*1965)
performed for four seasons at Prague’s National Theatre, then in 1992 he accepted an engagement
at the Vinohrady Theatre, where he remains to this day. There, he refined his acting, developing a
cultivated mode of expression, which he applies across a variety of genres in both the classical and
the modern repertoire (King Rat, Othello). For example, he has appeared in the legendary comedy
A Flea in Her Ear (La Puce à l'oreille) and in the play An Ideal Husband. He has had many chances to
perform on television, especially in fairytale productions and in dramatic and comic series. He played
the lead role, for example, in the three-part television film Arrowsmith. Besides performing on stage
and on television, he has enjoyed success for many years in the field of dubbing, speaking roles
played by such actors as Antoino Banderas and Mel Gibson; he has even lent his voice to the
character Henry Tomasino for the computer game Mafia II. Recently, Jan Šťastný as also been active
as a pedagogue, teaching at the Department of Drama of Prague’s Academy of Performing Arts.

The Martinů Voices chamber choir was founded in 2010. While its main artistic focus has been on
top-quality interpretation of chamber choral works of the 19th through the 21st centuries, their
repertoire also covers music of the Renaissance, Baroque, and Classical periods. The ensemble is
made up of professional singers working under the direction of the choirmaster Lukáš Vasilek.
The choir is a regular guest at the Czech Republic’s major music festivals including Prague Spring,
Smetana’s Litomyšl, Dvořák Prague, Strings of Autumn, the Saint Wenceslas Music Festival, and Lípa
Musica. They mostly perform concerts in their own series, but they have likewise been involved in a
number of joint projects with Czech and foreign orchestras and conductors. In 2014, they joined with
the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra and Jiří Bělohlávek in a production of Bohuslav Martinůʼs opera

What Men Live By. That particular collaboration earned them a nomination for the prestigious
International Opera Award (2015). Another major achievement for the choir was their concert
appearance at the 2016 Dvořák Prague Festival alongside the Tallis Scholars, a prominent British
ensemble. A year later, the choir joined with the Bang on a Can All-Stars in giving the premiere of the
cantata Anthracite Fields by the American composer Julia Wolfe at the festival Strings of Autumn.
Recordings made by Martinů Voices with a selection of choral music by Jan Novák, Bohuslav Martinů
(Supraphon 2014, 2018), and Benjamin Britten (Animal Music 2023) have won extraordinary acclaim.
Their album of madrigals by Bohuslav Martinů won a Diapason dʼOr from the important French music
magazine Diapason, and the UK’s prestigious magazine Gramophone honoured the recording as the
Editor’s Choice, the journal’s highest rating.

Lukáš Vasilek studied conducting and musicology. Since 2007, he has been the chief choirmaster of
the Prague Philharmonic Choir (PPC). Most of his artistic work with them involves rehearsing and
performing a cappella repertoire and preparing them to perform in large-scale cantatas, oratorios,
and operatic projects in collaboration with world-famous conductors and orchestras (Vienna
Symphony Orchestra, Czech Philharmonic, Israel Philharmonic, Kyiv Symphony Orchestra, etc.).
In addition to leading the PPC, he is active in a wide range of artistic projects, most notably in
collaboration with the vocal ensemble Martinů Voices, which he founded in 2010. As a conductor
and choirmaster, he appears on numerous recordings for major international labels, including Decca
Classics and Supraphon. In recent years, he has focused systematically on recording the choral music
of Bohuslav Martinů. His recordings have received extraordinary worldwie acclaim and have earned
awards from prestigious publications such as Gramophone, BBC Music Magazine, and Diapason.

Jakub Fišer violin
Štěpán Ježek violin
Jiří Pinkas viola
Štěpán Doležal cello

The Bennewitz Quartet is a top chamber music ensemble internationally. Since their victories at two
prestigious competitions (the 2005 Osaka Chamber Music and Festa and the 2008 Prémio Paolo
Borciani in Italy), they have quickly earned critical acclaim. They have also won many awards here in
their home country. In 2004, the Bennewitz Quartet was announced as the winner of the Czech
Chamber Music Society Prize, and in 2019 they were honoured by the Classic Prague Awards for the
year’s best chamber music performance.
The quartet performs regularly at major venues in this country and abroad (London’s Wigmore Hall,
Vienna’s Musikverein, Berlin’s Konzerthaus, Prague’s Rudolfinum etc.) and appears at such
prestigious festivals as the Salzburger Festspiele, the Lucerne Festival, and the Prague Spring Festival.
They have collaborated with such outstanding artists as Alexander Melnikov, Vadim Gluzman, Jean-
Yves Thibaudet, and Isabel Charisius.
The Bennewitz Quartet takes particular pleasure in the role it plays in this country’s musical life. They
take great pride in having collaborated with the Czech Philharmonic and the orchestra’s former chief
conductor Jiří Bělohlávek on a performance of Bohuslav Martinů’s Concerto for String Quartet and

Orchestra and with the Prague Symphony Orchestra and the conductor Michael Sanderling on a
performance of Absolute Jest by John Adams. For Czech Television, the quartet recorded both of Leoš
Janáček’s string quartets in the unique setting of Villa Tugendhat. Their important concerts are
regularly recorded by Czech Radio.
The quartet emphasises original repertoire; in 2012 and 2015 they played Bartók’s complete six
string quartets on a single evening at the festival Maggio Musicale Fiorentino and in Uppsala,
Sweden. In January 2014 at Berlin’s Konzerthaus, they gave the world premiere of Slavomír Hořínka’s
Songs of Immigrants. In 2019, the Supraphon label issued their recording of works by Jewish
composers who suffered persecution (Viktor Ullmann, Hans Krása, Erwin Schulhoff, and Pavel Haas).
In the 2025/2026 season, the Bennewitz Quartet is appearing at important European festivals and
concert venues such as the Schwetzinger Festspiele, Prague Spring, Concentus Moraviae, and the
Laeiszhalle in Hamburg. They have also returned to the Dvořák Prague Festival, presenting a
programme that was among the highlights of the season. In Prague, they are joining forces with
leading Czech artists, and for the Prague Symphony Orchestra chamber series, they will perform
Beethoven’s Septet and Schubert’s Octet. Their season also includes an extensive tour of the USA
with appearances in various cities and a recital at the prestigious Cosmos Club in Washington, D.C.
Since 1998, the quartet has borne the name of Antonín Bennewitz (1833‒1926), a violinist and the
director of the Prague Conservatoire, who was responsible for establishing the Czech school of violin
playing. His pupils included Otakar Ševčík and František Ondříček as well as Karel Hoffmann, Josef
Suk, and Oskar Nedbal, who founded the famed Bohemian Quartet at his suggestion.

Matouš Zukal (*1998) studied at the Prague Musical Grammar School under Jitka Němcová and at
the Prague Conservatoire in the studio of Ivo Kahánek, then he furthered his studies under Kahánek
and Jan Bartoš at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, where he is continuing his studies in the
doctoral programme while also working towards a master’s degree at the Universität für Musik und
darstellende Kunst in Graz in the studio of Markus Schirmer. In 2021, he became a laureate of the
Prague Spring International Competition, earning Second Prize, the Gideon Klein Foundation Prize,
and the Czech Centres Award. In 2019 he won the Bohuslava Martinů Foundation Competition,
where he also received the prize for the best interpretation of a composition by Bohuslav Martinů
and the Zorka and Jaroslav Zich Prize. In 2023, he won First Prize at the festival Verão Clássico in
Lisbon, and in 2025 he became the winner of the Concours international de piano d’Île-de-France and
of the Martha Debelli Stiftung competition. Since his childhood, he has been consulting at
masterclasses with such important figures as Sir András Schiff, Lukáš Vondráček, Boris Giltburg, Jiří
Hlinka, and Leif Ove Andsnes.