Acis and Galatea

The soprano Helena Hozová was born in Polička. She studied singing at the Pardubice Conservatory, the Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Brno, and at the Carl Maria von Weber University of Music in Dresden with Christiane Hossfeld and Ludger Rémy. She also attended a number of masterclasses with prominent personalities of the opera world, such as Tom Krause, Federica Proietti, Gabriela Beňačková, and Josef Protschka.   The singer has collaborated with the Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra Olomouc, the Czech Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra Pardubice, the Bohuslav Martinů Philharmonic Orchestra Zlín and the ensembles Les Gouts Réunis (Luxembourg), Collegium Marianum, Barocco Sempre Giovane, and Ensemble Inégal. Nowadays, Helena Hozová cooperates mainly with the Collegium 1704 ensemble focusing on the interpretation of early music.   She has performed solo parts at festivals such as Salzburger Festspiele, Chopin i jego Europa in Warsaw, Smetana’s Litomyšl, the St Wenceslas Music Festival and in concert venues such as the Theater an der Wien, the Zaryadye Concert Hall in Moscow, or Centro Nacional de Difusón Musical in Madrid among many more. Helena Hozová sang the role of Nicandro in Antonio Vivaldi’s opera Arsilda at the Opéra Royal de Versailles, staged by David Radok under the baton of Václav Luks, and also appeared at the Opéra de Lille, the Grand Théâtre de Luxembourg, the Théâtre de Caen, and the Slovak National Theatre in Bratislava.   In 2010, together with guitarist Irena Sedláčková, she founded Duo Nana, which focuses on Czech contemporary music. In the last few years, the singer has recorded Pavel Haas’s Seven Songs in Folk Tone and Luboš Sluka’s song cycles Singing to Children and Flower Language for Czech Radio, and Karel Růžička’s Celebration Jazz Mass for Czech TV. In 2019, she toured in Portugal, Brazil, and Peru with song cycles by Antonín Dvořák, Leoš Janáček, Manuel de Falla, and Joaquín Rodrigo.

Vojtěch Semerád is a graduate of the Prague Conservatory, the Faculty of Pedagogy of Charles University in Prague (Choirmastering), and the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique in Paris (Baroque violin with François Fernandez). He is a finalist of the Telemann-Wettbewerb International Competition in Magdeburg. He has been trained as a singer since 2010 throughout private lessons (with teachers such as Chantal Santon Jeffery, Peter Kooij, Poppy Holden) and many masterclasses.   As a solo singer, Vojtěch Semerád is invited by renowned ensembles such as Les Arts Florissants, Ensemble Correspondances, Wroclaw Baroque Orchestra, Vox Luminis, or Huelgas Ensemble, with whom he performs at major international venues and festivals such as Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Park Avenue Armory New York, Logan Center Chicago, Concertgebouw Rotterdam, Wigmore Hall London, Palau de la Música Barcelona, etc. He has taken part in several opera productions, and has recently sung the role of Acis in Georg Friedrich Handel’s Acis and Galatea, the role of Atys in Jean-Baptiste Lully’s Atys, the role of Pythonisse in David et Jonathas and Histoires Sacrés by Marc-Antoine Charpentier, or The Fairy Queen by Henry Purcell. He is regularly invited as the Evangelist in passions and oratorios by Johann Sebastian Bach.   Vojtěch Semerád is the artistic director of the vocal ensemble Cappella Mariana, with which he performs forgotten works of vocal polyphony of Middle Ages, Renaissance and Baroque era. Today the ensemble is regularly invited to the prestigious festivals, a.o. Oude Muziek Utrecht, MAfestival Brugge, Voices of Passion Leuven, Laus Polyphoniae Antwerpen, Klangvokal Dortmund, Prague Spring, Innsbrucker Festwochen, Tage Alter Musik Regensburg, and Concentus Moraviae.   As a violinist, Vojtěch Semerád is a permanent member of the Collegium Marianum ensemble and also performs in multi-genre and original musical projects.   He has recorded for Deutsche Gramophon, Naïve, Harmonia Mundi, Passacaille and Supraphon, in total more than 30 recordings, and also regularly records for Czech Radio. Vojtěch Semerád is also a researcher, focusing on the discovery of 15^th, 16^th and 17^th century vocal music in Central Europe.

Ondřej Holub was a member of the Kühn Children’s Choir and the Pueri Gaudentes Boys’ Choir in his early youth, thanks to which he became a child soloist at the Prague State Opera in a production of Mozart’s The Magic Flute. He first studied classical singing privately with Lenka Pištěcká, then at the Prague Conservatory with Valentin Prolat, and later developed his singing skills with Jiří Kotouč.   Since 2019, he has been collaborating with the Baroque orchestra Collegium 1704, performing both as a soloist and as an ensemble singer, for example, singing the tenor part in Bach’s Mass in B minor in Vézelay, France. Ondřej Holub also regularly works with the Ensemble Damian, with whom he has performed in the operas La contesa de’ numi by Leonardo Vinci (Marte) and L’Amor non há legge by Antonio Caldara (Tirsi). Both of these pieces were staged at the Olomouc Baroque Festival, and Caldara’s opera was performed three times at Smetana’s Litomyšl Festival in Nové Hrady castle (in 2018). As a soloist, Ondřej Holub regularly collaborates with a number of ensembles and orchestras (the Prague Symphony Orchestra FOK, the South Bohemian Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Hradec Králové Philharmonic Orchestra). He has been an ensemble singer in most of the leading Czech early music ensembles – Schola Gregoriana Pragensis, Cappella Mariana, Collegium Marianum, Ensemble Inégal, Czech Ensemble Baroque, Musica Florea, and Victoria Ensemble.   Between 2013 and 2019, he was a member of the Martinů Voices chamber choir, one of the outstanding interpreters of 20^th century and contemporary music. He regularly participates in prestigious national and international festivals. In 2007, he founded the male vocal quintet Rudolfvoice with former members of the Pueri Gaudentes Boys’ Choir and performed with them at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. Ondřej Holub cooperates with the Prague Philharmonic Choir on an external basis and joined it on stage for a performance of Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 in Carnegie Hall in New York to mark the 100^th anniversary of the founding of Czechoslovakia.

The baritone Roman Hoza studied in Brno and Vienna. He is a graduate of the prestigious Young Singers Project of the Salzburger Festspiele and the opera studios of the Opéra National de Lyon and the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Düsseldorf.   In 2015, he made his debut at the National Theatre in Prague as Figaro in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro, and he has been one of its regular guests ever since. He joined the ensemble of soloists at the National Theatre in Brno in September 2016, and since then has sung a number of key baritone parts there (for example, Belcore in Gaetano Donizetti’s opera L’Elisir d’Amore and Escamillo in Georges Bizet’s Carmen). He has performed as a guest for opera audiences in Vienna, Lyon, Salzburg, Düsseldorf, Duisburg, Cologne, Kaiserslautern, and other cities. Mozart and Rossini roles are a key part of his repertoire. In the 2019/1920 season, Roman Hoza returned to the Deutsche Oper am Rhein – first as a guest and a year later as a member of the permanent ensemble. In the 2023/2024 season, he will appear there as Taddeo in Gioacchino Rossini’s L’Italiana in Algeri, in Jerry Bock’s musical Fiddler on the Roof, and in the world premiere of Manfred Trojahn’s opera Septembersonate.   Roman Hoza is in great demand as a performer of the concert repertoire. In October 2023, he sang in Rome in Dvořák’s cantata The Spectre’s Bride, under the baton of Jakub Hrůša with the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia. During his collaboration with Václav Luks (Collegium 1704) and other ensembles focusing on early music (Collegium Marianum, Ensemble Inégal, Musica Florea, Czech Ensemble Baroque), he has appeared many times as a soloist, for example in Georg Frideric Handel’s oratorio The Messiah or Johann Sebastian Bach’s St John Passion.   Songs occupy a special place in his singing career. He is a winner of the song category of the International Antonín Dvořák Singing Competition in Karlovy Vary. Roman Hoza performed Robert Schumann’s cycle Dichterliebe at the Rudolfinum and in 2022 he sang Gustav Mahler’s Songs of a Wayfarer under the baton of Robert Kružík with the Brno Philharmonic Orchestra. In the summer of 2023, he presented song cycles by French composers (Maurice Ravel, Jaques Ibert, Francis Poulenc) in Düsseldorf.

Tomáš Lajtkep began taking private solo singing lessons while studying electrical engineering at Brno University of Technology. He first attended lessons with Hana Málková in Brno, and since 2015 with Luděk Löbl in Prague. His interpretation of Baroque and Renaissance music draws on his experience from masterclasses with bass Joel Fredericksen, soprano Evelyn Tubb, and tenor Erik Stoklossa.   Since 2008, he has established cooperation with leading ensembles dedicated to medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque music in the Czech Republic and other European countries. These include the Czech groups Schola Gregoriana Pragensis, Collegium 1704, Cappella Mariana, Collegium Marianum, Ensemble Inégal, Hof-Musici, and the Berg Orchestra, and the foreign groups Collegium Vocale Gent (Philippe Herreweghe), La Capella Reial de Catalunya (Jordi Savall), Ensemble Cinquecento, In Alto Ensemble, Vox Luminis, La Grande Chapelle, Copenhagen Soloists, Wrocław Baroque Ensemble, and the Balthasar Neumann Chor & Ensemble. He collaborates with these ensembles on concert and recording projects.   With the Collegium Marianum, he appears in Georg Frideric Handel’s opera Acis and Galatea. At the J. K. Tyl Theatre in Pilsen, he sang in Claudio Monteverdi’s opera L’incoronazione di Poppea, conducted by Vojtěch Spurný and directed by Ondřej Pilař. With the Hof-Musici ensemble under the artistic direction of Ondřej Macek, he performed in opera by Giovanni Buonaventura Viviani’s La vaghezza del fato (in 2022 in its world premiere), and in 2023, in Antonio Gianettini’s L’Echo ravvivata (at the Festival of Baroque Art in the Baroque Theatre in Český Krumlov).   Tomáš Lajtkep also presents contemporary music with the Berg Orchestra and Cappella Mariana, including compositions by composers such as Steve Reich, Wolfgang Rihm, Stanislav Hořínka, and Martin Smolka.

Buchty a loutky (Cakes and Puppets) is an independent, alternative puppet theatre troupe for children and adults. It was founded in 1991 by a group of graduates of the Department of Alternative and Puppet Theatre at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. Since then, it has staged over 40 titles, a number of one-off projects in the field of alternative theatre and specific art events. It has also participated in the production of puppet and animated films. Buchty a loutky creates a unique theatrical poetics. Its own theatrical productions and adaptations of classic titles are characterised by a strong improvisational element and a distinctive humour. Emphasis is placed on the visual aspect of the productions, based on combining old toys and worn-out objects with the latest technology. Most performances include original musical compositions, in many cases performed live.   Individual productions are performed by three to eight actors. The theatre troupe is a regular guest on the studio stage of the Švandovo Theatre in Prague, but is usually on the road. It presents around 250 performances a year in the Czech Republic and abroad (Europe, Japan, Taiwan, the USA, Canada, Mexico), participates in a number of international shows and festivals and organises the theatre festival Buchty a loutky dětem / Pohádková Kinského zahrada (Cakes and Puppets for Children / the Kinský Fairy Tale Garden). The troupe is also involved in the production of films: these include Chcípáci (Radek Beran), Strings (Anders Rønnow-Klarlund), Kuky se vrací (Jan Svěrák), Zelený křeček (Bedřich and Světlana Glaser) and Seventeen, a feature-length documentary about Buchty a loutky (Tomáš Petráň).   Buchty a loutky has received awards at many festivals in the Czech Republic and abroad, for example, Skupova Plzeň, the Calgary Animated Objects Society Festival in Canada, Dschungel Wien, Internationales Theaterfestival Potsdam, Hohensteiner Puppenspielfest, Silkeborg Dukketeaterfestival in Denmark, and the Taipei Film Festival in Taiwan.

Since it was founded in 1997, the Prague ensemble Collegium Marianum has focused on presenting the music of the 17th and 18th centuries, especially by composers who were born or active in central Europe. One of the few professional ensembles specialising in this field in the Czech Republic, Collegium Marianum not only gives musical performances, but regularly also stages scenic projects.   The ensemble works under the artistic leadership of the traverso player Jana Semerádová whose active research into and study of Baroque gesture, declamation and dance has enabled the broadening of the artistic profile of the Collegium Marianum ensemble and the presentation of multi-genre projects featuring Baroque dance and theatre. This background also informs her unique, thematic programming, which has resulted in a number of modern-day premieres. The ensemble works closely with renowned soloists (Hana Blažíková, Simona Houda-Šaturová, Roberta Mameli, Raffaele Pe, Chantal Santon Jeffery, etc.) and has carried out projects with leading conductors and directors (e.g., Andrew Parrott, Rudolf Lutz, Benjamin Lazar, and Jean-Denis Monory). Its artistic collaboration with the Centre de musique baroque de Versailles has produced dramaturgically extraordinary projects involving French Baroque music and dance and the ensemble also maintains a long-term, fruitful collaboration with the Buchty a loutky theatre company.   Collegium Marianum has received critical acclaim both at home and abroad and has appeared extensively on Czech Radio and TV as well as on radio abroad. The performances of the ensemble at many music festivals and prestigious venues have met with great success.   The Supraphon label has already released ten of their recordings as part of the “Music of 18^th Century Prague” series. In 2022, the CD “A Lily Among Thorns” with Hana Blažíková was nominated for the “Anděl” musical awards.   Collegium Marianum is the ensemble in residence of the Summer Festivities of Early Music international festival. It is a recipient of the merit award for the quality and dissemination of Czech music from the Czech section of the International Music Council of UNESCO.

Flautist Jana Semerádová is a graduate of the Prague Conservatory, the Faculty of Philosophy, Charles University in Prague, and the Koninklijk Conservatorium in the Hague, the Netherlands. She is also a laureate of the Magdeburg and Munich international competitions.   Jana Semerádová is the artistic director of Collegium Marianum and programming director of the concert cycle Baroque Soirées and the IMF Summer Festivities of Early Music. She undertakes intensive archival research both at home and abroad and is engaged in ongoing study of Baroque gesture, declamation and dance.   Under her direction, Collegium Marianum stages several modern premieres each year. Jana Semerádová has a number of CDs to her name; her recordings with Collegium Marianum are featured as part of the successful series “Music from Eighteenth-Century Prague” on the Supraphon label, for which she has also recorded her two signature CDs “Solo for the King” and “Chaconne for the Princess“.   Jana Semerádová has performed at leading European concert venues and festivals (such as Oude Muziek Utrecht, Musikfestspiele Potsdam Sanssouci, Händel-Festspiele in Halle, the Prague Spring festival), collaborated as a soloist with artists including Magdalena Kožená, Sergio Azzolini, Alfredo Bernardini, or Enrico Onofri, and regularly performs with e.g. Il Suonar Parlante, Wrocławska Orkiestra Barokowa, or Orkiestra Historyczna.   In 2015 she received her habilitation degree as an associate professor of flute from the Faculty of Music and Dance at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. In 2019 she was awarded the prize of the Prague Group of the Society for Arts and Sciences.   The Czech Music Academy Awards „Anděl“ in 2020 brought the nomination to Jana Semerádová and Erich Traxler (category Classics) for their CD „Chaconne for the Princess“.