Don’t miss Barbara Hannigan’s residency concerts at Prague Spring 2026 ❤️

“This came as a huge surprise to me! I really didn’t expect it to happen, because Morphing Amadeus is in a way a playful reworking of traditional material. I even feel that the piece has a key signature, which these days can almost be disqualifying,” Jan Ryant Dřízal commented with a smile. “So I’m absolutely delighted, and I hope I’ll be able to attend the festival in person, although – as so often happens – I already have other commitments.” Morphing Amadeus is a musical tableau built from motifs taken from Mozart’s Don Giovanni overture. According to the composer, its conceptual model was the kinetic sculpture K by David Černý, better known as the rotating head of Franz Kafka. The work was commissioned by Prague Spring for one of the world’s leading ensembles specialising in contemporary music, Ensemble Modern – and the composer therefore “did not hold back in terms of technical demands or sonic imagination”.

Founded in 1922, the International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM) is a global forum dedicated to the development, dissemination and exchange of new music, and is a member of the International Music Council, an advisory body to UNESCO. It is a network of more than 60 organisations in around 50 countries. Prague Spring has been a member since 2016. In recent years, the same distinction has been awarded to Jan Dušek (2025), Michal Wróblewski (2024), Luboš Mrkvička and Jakub Rataj (2022), Michal Rataj (2021 and 2019), Miroslav Srnka and Jiří Kadeřábek (2018), as well as Adam Skoumal (2017).

Cocteau’s monologue has inspired numerous artistic works, including Pedro Almodóvar’s celebrated film Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown. Poulenc’s opera likewise conquered Milan’s Teatro alla Scala and other major international stages soon after its Paris premiere, and today stands among the jewels of twentieth-century operatic literature. “Nothing compares to this piece,” says Barbara Hannigan, whose artistic residency will be one of the major highlights of Prague Spring 2026. If you wish to experience the production that has already brought audiences to their feet in New York (New York Philharmonic), Milan (Teatro alla Scala), Paris (Radio France), Montreal, London, Rome (Santa Cecilia) and Munich, come to the Rudolfinum on 26 May for La Voix humaine with Barbara Hannigan.

Emily Beynon (Great Britain / Netherlands)
Emily Beynon has been principal flute of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam for thirty years. As a soloist, in addition to appearing with her home orchestra, she has performed with the Philharmonia Orchestra, the BBC orchestras, the NHK Symphony Orchestra Tokyo, and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields. She has recorded fifteen studio albums, made numerous radio recordings, and has also appeared in several television documentaries. A passionate advocate of contemporary music, she has championed composers such as John Woolrich, Sally Beamish, Jonathan Dove, Guillaume Connesson, Roxanna Panufnik, and Maarten Ornstein. She regularly gives masterclasses around the world. Her series of educational videos, published on her YouTube channel during the pandemic, met with outstanding success. From 2009 to 2021, she served as Artistic Director of the Netherlands Flute Academy (NEFLAC).

Christina Fassbender (Germany)
From 1996 to 1999, she was a member of the Münchner Rundfunkorchester, and from 1999 to 2012 she served as principal flute of the Komische Oper Berlin. She has also collaborated with the Berlin Philharmonic, the Staatskapelle Berlin, and the WDR Symphony Orchestra. Her solo career has taken her to concert stages in Germany, Italy, Austria, Switzerland, Japan, Korea, Norway, Chile, Costa Rica, the United States, and Canada. She is a regular guest at flute festivals, including the Italian FALAUT Festival and the Finnish Crusell Music Festival. Alongside her performing career, she has long been devoted to teaching. In 2012, she accepted a professorship at the Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster; in March 2015, she moved to the Hochschule für Musik Würzburg; and since October 2017, she has been Professor of Flute at the Universität der Künste Berlin.

Davide Formisano (Italy, Germany)
Born in Milan, Davide Formisano is the first Italian laureate of the prestigious ARD International Music Competition in Munich. Between 1995 and 2012, he successively held positions with the Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Hamburg, Radio Philharmonic Orchestra in the Netherlands, and for five years served as principal flute of the Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala. In 2012, he decided to leave the orchestral world in order to devote himself fully to solo and chamber music. His concert activity has taken him throughout Europe as well as to Asia, North and South America, in collaboration with artistic partners such as Philipp Moll, Fabio Biondi, Daniel Barenboim, Riccardo Muti, James Galway, Philippe Entremont, and Thomas Sanderling. As a soloist, he has appeared with leading orchestras including the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Saint Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra, the Tonhalle Ensemble in Zurich, and the Filarmonica della Scala, with whom he took part in a world tour in 2004. Since 2007, he has been Professor of Flute at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Stuttgart.

Barthold Kuijken (Belgium)
A specialist in the Baroque transverse flute and the recorder, Barthold Kuijken originally studied the modern flute at Bruges Conservatoire and at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague. The chance discovery of a Baroque flute and his subsequent study of original instruments in museums and private collections, and also 17th and 18th century sources, led him to early music and his specialisation in performance on Baroque instruments. He has collaborated with René Jacobs, harpsichordists Robert Kohnen and Gustav Leonhardt and violinist Lucy van Dael. He was a member of Collegium Aureum for many years, and he still performs in La Petite Bande. At the same time, he was also a member of the Mons-based ensemble Musiques Nouvelles with its focus on contemporary music. He has made recordings for Sony Classical, Harmonia Mundi (today BMG), Accent and Opus 111. His scholarly work includes a new annotated Urtext edition of Johann Sebastian Bach’s flute compositions for Breitkopf & Härtel. He teaches Baroque flute at the Royal Conservatories in Brussels and The Hague.

Václav Kunt (Czech Republic)
After ten years as a member of the Orchestra of the National Theatre Brno, Václav Kunt’s artistic career came to focus primarily on solo and chamber performance. For twenty-three years, he was principal flute of the Prague Chamber Orchestra, which performs without a conductor. As a soloist, he has appeared in many countries worldwide, including Germany, Austria, Spain, Sweden, Norway, Italy, the United States, Canada, and Japan. His artistry is documented on dozens of radio and studio recordings (Harmonia Mundi, Praga Digitals, Orfeo, or Supraphon). Chamber music occupies a special place in his work, whether in partnership with piano, harpsichord, harp, or in other instrumental combinations. He is also deeply committed to teaching. He is Professor of Flute at the Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Brno and also teaches at the Grammar and Music School of the Capital of Prague. He regularly leads international performance courses both in the Czech Republic and abroad.

Jan Ostrý (Czech Republic)
Jan Ostrý has built his career as a solo performer and pedagogue. He has appeared at major European music festivals including Styriarte, Pierre Boulez Days in Lyon, the Haydn Festival Eisenstadt, and the International Flute Festival Maastricht, and made his debut at the famous Concertgebouw Amsterdam. In the 1999–2000 season, he served as principal flute of the Orchestre National de Lyon, and from 2001 to 2002 held the same position at the Norwegian National Opera. He has contributed to numerous recordings for labels and broadcasters, including Studio Matouš, Supraphon, Naxos, Nimbus Records, Czech Radio, ORF, France Musique, and AVROTROS Klassiek. He currently teaches at the Prague Conservatory, the Faculty of Arts of the University of Ostrava, and the Musik und Kunst Privatuniversität der Stadt Wien. He has led masterclasses at the Nice Summer International Academy, the Universität fur Musik und darstellende Kunst in Vienna, and the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Lyon. For more than twenty years, he has been a permanent member of the teaching staff of the European Flute Academy in Fiss, Austria.

Joonas Ahonen (Finland)
Joonas Ahonen, Professor at the University of Music and Dance Cologne, was a member of Klangforum Wien for twelve years, during which time he collaborated with composers such as Tristan Murail and Beat Furrer. He is well known to Prague audiences for his outstanding performance of György Ligeti’s Concerto for Piano and Orchestra with Klangforum Wien at Prague Offspring 2023, and has also performed Unsuk Chin’s Piano Concerto with the Basel Sinfonietta and George Crumb’s Makrokosmos at the Salzburg Festival, among others. Equally at home in the music of the 20th and 21st centuries as in works of the 18th and 19th centuries, he also performs on the fortepiano. Since 2024, he has served as Artistic Director of the Finnish ensemble Avanti!, which specialises in contemporary music. He is also an artistic partner of the violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja, with whom he has appeared at venues and festivals including Teatro alla Scala, the Vienna Konzerthaus, Toppan Hall in Tokyo, the Gstaad Menuhin Festival, and the Prague Spring Festival 2025.

Dina Yoffe (Latvia, Germany)
A laureate of the International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw and the Robert Schumann International Competition in Zwickau, Dina Yoffe has, over the course of her distinguished concert career, performed with ensembles and conductors such as the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra with Zubin Mehta, the NHK Symphony Orchestra with Sir Neville Marriner, and Kremerata Baltica with Gidon Kremer. She has appeared at major festivals and in prestigious concert halls across Europe, including the Barbican Centre in London, Salle Pleyel in Paris, the Musikverein and Konzerthaus in Vienna, and the Royal Palace in The Hague, as well as in Japan (notably Suntory Hall in Tokyo) and the United States. A former professor at universities in Tel Aviv and Aichi (Japan), she is currently a Visiting Professor at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing and Professor at the EuroArts Academy. She has also given masterclasses at the Royal Academy of Music in London and in Salzburg as part of the Mozarteum International Summer Academy. An honorary member of the Chopin Society in Warsaw, she has served on the juries of piano competitions in Cleveland, Hamamatsu, Barcelona and Weimar.

Leonel Morales (Spain)
The Cuban–Spanish pianist Leonel Morales combines a successful concert career – which has taken him to such major venues as Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Centre in New York, the Kennedy Centre in Washington, the Beethovensaal in Stuttgart, and many other prestigious concert halls across Europe, Asia and the Americas – with an exceptionally prolific pedagogical activity. He is currently a professor at the Salzburg Summer Academy, the Alfonso X el Sabio University, and the Forum Musikae School of Music in Madrid. He has given masterclasses in Austria, Italy, France, Belgium, Poland, Germany, Croatia, Mexico, South Korea, China, Japan, and the United States. Every year, dozens of students travel to attend the International Masterclass and Piano Festival “Leonel Morales & Friends” in Granada, which he founded. He has served on the juries of international competitions in Cleveland, Lyon, Grosseto, Vienna, Shanghai, San Remo, Rio de Janeiro, and Shenzhen. He is the founder and Artistic Director of the María Herrero International Competition in Granada and of the International Piano Competition “Spanish Composers” in Madrid. In 2008, he was awarded the prestigious Italian Tasto d’Argento Award for his artistic achievements.

Katarzyna Popowa-Zydroń (Poland)
The Polish pianist of Bulgarian origin, Katarzyna Popowa-Zydroń, is Professor at the Feliks Nowowiejski Academy of Music in Bydgoszcz. She has given masterclasses in Poland, France, Germany, Ireland, Japan and China, and has served on the juries of numerous prestigious international piano competitions. She chaired the jury of the International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw in two consecutive editions, in 2015 and 2021. Among her renowned students are Rafał Blechacz, Jarred Dunn, and Lü Tianyao, a finalist of the 2025 Chopin Competition. For her outstanding contribution to and achievements in the field of classical music, Katarzyna Popowa-Zydroń has received a number of state honours, including the “Zasłużony Kulturze Gloria Artis” Medal.

Martin Kasík (Czech Republic)
His victories at the Prague Spring International Music Competition 1998 and the Young Concert Artists Competition in New York 1999 opened the door to leading concert stages around the world, including Carnegie Hall in New York, Wigmore Hall in London, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, and the Berlin Philharmonie. As a soloist, he has appeared with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Czech Philharmonic, DSO Berlin, the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, the Singapore Philharmonic, and the Prague Symphony Orchestra (FOK), working with conductors such as Marin Alsop, Yakov Kreizberg, Ingo Metzmacher, Ken-Ichiro Kobayashi, Libor Pešek, Jakub Hrůša, and Tomáš Netopil. His recordings for Supraphon and Arco Diva have received awards and critical acclaim in leading music journals, including Gramophone, Répertoire, and Harmonie. For several years, he has been passing on his experience to young pianists as a teacher at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague and at the Prague Conservatory, and he is also Artistic Director of the Chopin Festival in Mariánské Lázně.

Ivo Kahánek (Czech Republic)
The overall winner of the Prague Spring International Music Competition 2004, Ivo Kahánek, has collaborated with leading orchestras including the Berlin Philharmonic, the Bamberg Symphony, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra. His repertoire ranges from the Baroque to the 21st century, with a particular focus on Romantic music. Internationally, he is regarded as a specialist in the interpretation of works by Czech composers, especially Bedřich Smetana, Antonín Dvořák, and Bohuslav Martinů. He made his debut at the BBC Proms in 2007 and has worked with conductors such as Sir Simon Rattle, Semyon Bychkov, Andrés Orozco-Estrada, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Jiří Bělohlávek, Zdeněk Mácal, and Jakub Hrůša. His recordings for Supraphon, for which he has been an exclusive artist since 2007, have received numerous awards, including the BBC Music Magazine Award, Diapason d’Or, Choix de Classique, and nominations for the Opus Klassik and the International Classical Music Award. He is actively involved in a wide range of educational projects, including the MenArt Academy, the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, and the Prague Conservatoire, where he was appointed Director in 2025. He is Patron of the Harmonie Endowment Fund and a member of the PETROF Art Family.