“This programme invites the listener on a journey across Europe through some of the most beautiful and expressive music ever written for the lute. From the profound melancholy of John Dowland, to the bold and inventive writing of Girolamo Kapsberger, the refined elegance of Robert de Visée and Marin Marais, and culminating in the transcendence of Johann Sebastian Bach, this recital reveals the extraordinary range of colours and emotions that the lute can offer. Each piece is a window into the soul of its time, showcasing the instrument’s poetic voice and its timeless power to move us. I’m very much looking forward to sharing this music with the audience in Prague,” says French lutenist Thomas Dunford, describing his debut recital at the Prague Spring. This affable artist, who has given debuts in London’s Wigmore Hall, New York’s Carnegie Hall, the Berliner Philharmonie and the Philharmonie de Paris, will guide us through European Renaissance and Baroque music from a time when the sound of a fragile instrument evoking both melancholy and joy delighted kings and simple townspeople alike. In Prague you’ll be able to savour it in the ideal acoustic environment of St Agnes’ Convent.

Paris native Thomas Dunford is one of the most sought-after lute players on the scene today. He discovered this uncommon instrument at the age of nine, he continued his studies at the Paris Conservatoire and then attended the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Switzerland, where he was taught by celebrated lutenist Hopkinson Smith. He also attended masterclasses with such names as Rolf Lislevand, Julian Bream and Paul O’Dette. In 2003 he gave his first performances playing the role of the lutenist in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night on stage at the Comédie-Française. Since that time he has appeared in some of the world’s most prestigious venues and he collaborates with the finest period instrument ensembles, among them the Academy of Ancient Music and Pygmalion. In 2018 he established his own Jupiter Ensemble where, with considerable open-mindedness, he presents a repertoire spanning an arc from Vivaldi to songs by The Beatles. His regular chamber partners include the harpsichordist Jean Rondeau, one of the discoveries of the Prague Spring 2023. Thomas Dunford’s critically acclaimed recordings are released under the Alpha Classics and Erato labels and he also collaborated on the album Bill and Friends for harmonia mundi where, together with other “friends”, he played alongside legendary conductor and harpsichordist William Christie. He performed at the Prague Spring in 2014 as a member of the famous French ensemble Les Arts Florissants.

At the concert in May 2026, his Prague Spring debut as a soloist, Thomas Dunford will present a cross-section of the most exquisite lute repertoire from the Renaissance and Baroque periods. The evening will begin with a selection of works by one of the most renowned lutenists of the Elizabethan and early Stuart eras, John Dowland (1563–1626). We will hear the famous pavane Lachrimae with its well-known “weeping” motif; The King of Denmark’s Galliard, whose dotted rhythms and repeated notes imitate the sound of military drums and marching soldiers; and the enigmatic Frog Galliard, which became the model for the song Now, o now, I needs must part, about the ugly Duke of Alençon, one of Queen Elizabeth I’s suitors. The programme also offers music by composers associated with sunny Italy: the temperamental Calata alla Spagnola by Joan Ambrosio Dalza (?–1508) and the richly ornamented Toccata by Giovanni Girolamo Kapsberger (1580–1651). We travel to France to hear music by Robert de Visée (1652–1725), lutenist at the court of Louis XIV and Louis XV, and Marin Marais (1656–1728), who was not only a productive composer, but also the father of nineteen children. From the latter’s oeuvre we will hear the piece Les voix humaines, a wonderful work of understated sincerity and depth, a “chant de mémoire”, as aptly described by leading viola da gamba player Paul Rousseau. The programme will end with Dunford’s own transcription of the violin Chaccone from Partita in D minor BWV 1004 by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750), of which Johannes Brahms wrote: “On one stave, for a small instrument, the man [Bach] writes a whole world of the deepest thoughts and most powerful feelings. If I imagined that I could have created, even conceived the piece, I am quite certain that the excess of excitement and earth-shattering experience would have driven me out of my mind.” As a matter of interest, you can hear the same piece in an arrangement by Ferruccio Busoni during Jan Schulmeister’s recital at the Convent of St Agnes on 23 May. With Thomas Dunford, however, you won’t experience the kind of sweeping gestures from Busoni that were typical for the close of the 19th century, but instead tender caresses from the eras of the Renaissance and the Baroque.

The International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw is possibly the only competition in the world whose winners become classical music stars practically overnight. Triumph in the Polish capital launched the careers of Maurizio Pollini (1960), Martha Argerich (1965), Garrick Ohlsson (1970), Krystian Zimerman (1975), Yulianna Avdeeva (2010) and Seong-Jin Cho (2015). These artists have all performed at the Prague Spring, many of them in their Czech debut immediately after their victory. In 2026 they will be joined by the winner of the final round held on 20 October 2025, American pianist Eric Lu. We can look forward to his Prague Spring recital in the Rudolfinum on 22 May.

Eric Lu was already a huge hit at the Chopin competition ten years ago when, at a mere seventeen years of age, he astonished the entire audience with his performance in the final round. In 2018 he won the Leeds International Piano Competition, which gave rise not only to an exclusive contract with prominent label Warner Classics, but also to his collaboration with leading world orchestras and concert venues. He has appeared with the Boston, Chicago and London Symphonies, also with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London and the Oslo Philharmonic, and he has given his debuts at the BBC Proms, the Leipzig Gewandhaus, Wigmore Hall, Elbe Philharmonie, Seoul Arts Center and the Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris. “Going by the buzz in the hallways at intermission, I’m not the only one who would love to hear him play more of anything,” wrote The Boston Globe after his debut with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Lu has worked with Riccardo Muti, Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla and Thomas Dausgaard, and he has also encountered Czech conductor Tomáš Netopil on the concert platform. In 2021 he received the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant, awarded to America’s most talented young artists, and from 2019 to 2022 he was part of the BBC’s New Generation Artists programme. He studied with Robert McDonald and Jonathan Biss at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. His mentors include Mitsuko Uchida, Imogen Cooper and Dang Thai Son. He currently divides his time between Berlin and Boston.

In 2026 pianist Jan Schulmeister celebrates his twentieth birthday yet, despite his young age, he has already won awards from more than thirty competitions, among them the César Franck International Piano Competition in Brussels, the Manhattan International Competition in New York and the Concertino Praga International Radio Competition. His biggest success to date is the third prize awarded to him at the Van Cliburn International Junior Piano Competition in Dallas, USA, the junior offshoot of its famous namesake. For his debut at the Prague Spring this talented artist has chosen a programme which he, himself, describes as “a journey across various epochs”. Works will include one of the most famous “encores” of all time – Prelude in C sharp minor by Sergei Rachmaninov (1873–1943) from the cycle Morceaux de fantaisie or the powerful Sonata 1. X. 1905 by Leoš Janáček (1854–1928), which was written in response to a real-life incident – the tragic death of joiner’s apprentice František Pavlík during the unrest in Brno in 1905. The programme will culminate in a brilliant transcription of Bach’s violin Chaccone from Partita in D minor, with which its author – the Italian-German piano virtuoso Ferruccio Busoni (1866–1924) – dazzled his concert audiences at the turn of the 20th century.

Jan Schulmeister is a member of what is now the sixth generation of musicians. The founder of this family musical tradition was his great-great-grandfather, trumpeter František Černý, a pupil of Antonín Liehmann and schoolmate of Antonín Dvořák in Zlonice. “As a bandmaster he went off to earn a living in St Petersburg, he left his wife and three children behind, and he never returned home. But we all like to boast that he was a classmate of Antonín Dvořák at the school in Zlonice!” Jan told us with a smile in one of his interviews. If you are wondering whether he is related to the second violinist in the Wihan Quartet, you’d be absolutely right: These namesakes are father and son.

The gifted pianist’s first victory in competition occurred in Milan when he was just seven years old. This was followed by competition successes in the Czech Republic, Switzerland, Sweden, Spain, Austria, Estonia, Belgium and the USA, which in turn led to collaboration with leading Czech orchestras and conductors, among them the Brno Philharmonic under Dennis Russell Davies, the Bohuslav Martinů Philharmonic Orchestra with Tomáš Netopil and the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra under Jiří Rožeň. In January 2026 Jan Schulmeister will make his debut with the Moravian Philharmonic Olomouc in Vienna’s Musikverein. In addition to these achievements, he already has four solo albums to his name. “My Prague Spring programme will take us on a journey across different eras,” he says. “Each of these pieces evokes strong emotions in me – from the spiritual depth and serenity of Bach’s Toccata and the inner restlessness and lyricism of Rachmaninov, to the pain and urgency of Janáček’s Sonata. The final work, Bach’s Chaconne in a transcription by Ferruccio Busoni, blends profound spirituality with Romantic monumentality. I chose these pieces with the aim of creating a contrasting but internally cohesive programme, which would offer listeners both a profound musical encounter and also an emotional experience,” he adds. “Just seeing the young pianist step up onto the stage told us that this concert was going to be something truly special. He radiated strength, determination and joy, all of which accompanied him throughout his performance,” wrote a music critic on the KlasikaPlus website in a review of one of Jan’s concerts. After Jan Čmejla’s debut in 2025 the Prague Spring thus brings you a recital by another exceptional talent on the young Czech music scene, a concert you really won’t want to miss.

“An ensemble that one could spontaneously count as one of the best one has ever heard.” “Perfect mastery of style and real experience of this repertoire.” “The Bennewitz quartet is downright wonderful, with a perfect balance of warmth and objective clarity.” This is how one of the finest Czech string quartets is described by the prestigious world media: the German Süddeutsche Zeitung, French Diapason and British Gramophone. The Bennewitz Quartet is undeniably one of the best that the fertile and successful Czech quartet school currently has to offer. In 2026 the ensemble returns to the festival with a programme structured exclusively for the Prague Spring. In the attractive surroundings of St Agnes’ Convent they will perform the final string quartets of British composer Benjamin Britten and Antonín Dvořák.

String Quartet No. 3 is not only the final quartet, but also the last major work by Benjamin Britten (1913–1976). The five-movement structure and the seemingly light character of the music suggest Classical divertimentos. However, alongside the playfulness Britten retained despite his illness, even in his advanced years, the work stands out for its experimental sound, its personal references and profound nostalgia. The British composer wrote the first four movements at Chapel House in Horham, Suffolk. The last movement, subtitled “La Serenissima”, was written in the famous Hotel Danieli in his beloved Venice. Here he incorporated a quotation from his opera Death in Venice, based on the novella of the same name by Thomas Mann. In all likelihood, however, this is not a further exploration of the destiny of Gustav von Aschenbach, but instead a moving farewell to tenor Peter Pears, Britten’s life partner and muse for more than forty years. Pears described the quartet in a letter as a work “of a profound beauty more touching than anything else, radiant, wise, new, mysterious – overwhelming”. The composer did not live to see the work’s premiere. It was performed for the first time by the famous Amadeus Quartet in December 1976, two weeks after Britten’s death.

“This programme invites the listener on a journey across Europe through some of the most beautiful and expressive music ever written for the lute. From the profound melancholy of John Dowland, to the bold and inventive writing of Girolamo Kapsberger, the refined elegance of Robert de Visée and Marin Marais, and culminating in the transcendence of Johann Sebastian Bach, this recital reveals the extraordinary range of colours and emotions that the lute can offer. Each piece is a window into the soul of its time, showcasing the instrument’s poetic voice and its timeless power to move us. I’m very much looking forward to sharing this music with the audience in Prague,” says French lutenist Thomas Dunford, describing his debut recital at the Prague Spring. This affable artist, who has given debuts in London’s Wigmore Hall, New York’s Carnegie Hall, the Berliner Philharmonie and the Philharmonie de Paris, will guide us through European Renaissance and Baroque music from a time when the sound of a fragile instrument evoking both melancholy and joy delighted kings and simple townspeople alike. In Prague you’ll be able to savour it in the ideal acoustic environment of St Agnes’ Convent.

Paris native Thomas Dunford is one of the most sought-after lute players on the scene today. He discovered this uncommon instrument at the age of nine, he continued his studies at the Paris Conservatoire and then attended the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Switzerland, where he was taught by celebrated lutenist Hopkinson Smith. He also attended masterclasses with such names as Rolf Lislevand, Julian Bream and Paul O’Dette. In 2003 he gave his first performances playing the role of the lutenist in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night on stage at the Comédie-Française. Since that time he has appeared in some of the world’s most prestigious venues and he collaborates with the finest period instrument ensembles, among them the Academy of Ancient Music and Pygmalion. In 2018 he established his own Jupiter Ensemble where, with considerable open-mindedness, he presents a repertoire spanning an arc from Vivaldi to songs by The Beatles. His regular chamber partners include the harpsichordist Jean Rondeau, one of the discoveries of the Prague Spring 2023. Thomas Dunford’s critically acclaimed recordings are released under the Alpha Classics and Erato labels and he also collaborated on the album Bill and Friends for harmonia mundi where, together with other “friends”, he played alongside legendary conductor and harpsichordist William Christie. He performed at the Prague Spring in 2014 as a member of the famous French ensemble Les Arts Florissants.

At the concert in May 2026, his Prague Spring debut as a soloist, Thomas Dunford will present a cross-section of the most exquisite lute repertoire from the Renaissance and Baroque periods. The evening will begin with a selection of works by one of the most renowned lutenists of the Elizabethan and early Stuart eras, John Dowland (1563–1626). We will hear the famous pavane Lachrimae with its well-known “weeping” motif; The King of Denmark’s Galliard, whose dotted rhythms and repeated notes imitate the sound of military drums and marching soldiers; and the enigmatic Frog Galliard, which became the model for the song Now, o now, I needs must part, about the ugly Duke of Alençon, one of Queen Elizabeth I’s suitors. The programme also offers music by composers associated with sunny Italy: the temperamental Calata alla Spagnola by Joan Ambrosio Dalza (?–1508) and the richly ornamented Toccata by Giovanni Girolamo Kapsberger (1580–1651). We travel to France to hear music by Robert de Visée (1652–1725), lutenist at the court of Louis XIV and Louis XV, and Marin Marais (1656–1728), who was not only a productive composer, but also the father of nineteen children. From the latter’s oeuvre we will hear the piece Les voix humaines, a wonderful work of understated sincerity and depth, a “chant de mémoire”, as aptly described by leading viola da gamba player Paul Rousseau. The programme will end with Dunford’s own transcription of the violin Chaccone from Partita in D minor BWV 1004 by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750), of which Johannes Brahms wrote: “On one stave, for a small instrument, the man [Bach] writes a whole world of the deepest thoughts and most powerful feelings. If I imagined that I could have created, even conceived the piece, I am quite certain that the excess of excitement and earth-shattering experience would have driven me out of my mind.” As a matter of interest, you can hear the same piece in an arrangement by Ferruccio Busoni during Jan Schulmeister’s recital at the Convent of St Agnes on 23 May. With Thomas Dunford, however, you won’t experience the kind of sweeping gestures from Busoni that were typical for the close of the 19th century, but instead tender caresses from the eras of the Renaissance and the Baroque.

Artist-in-Residence of the Prague Spring 2026 Barbara Hannigan is one of the most original figures in the sphere of classical music. With her typical courage and determination she sings and also conducts, she inspires the finest contemporary composers in their endeavours, and she creates unique projects which go far beyond the customary concert experience. Born in Canada, she has performed the premieres of more than one hundred works. She collaborates with some of the world’s most distinguished conductors and orchestras, including the Berlin Philharmonic. She is Principal Guest Conductor of the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, she holds the positions of Associate Artist of the London Symphony Orchestra and the Première Artiste Invitée of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, and in the autumn of 2026 she will take up her post as Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Iceland Symphony Orchestra. Her exceptional artistic achievements are moreover reflected in a number of prestigious awards, among them a Grammy Award, the title Artist of the Year from Gramophone magazine, and the Polar Music Prize 2025, a Swedish international award established by music publisher and manager of ABBA Stig Anderson, which she won together with jazzman Herbie Hancock and the rock band Queen. Her Prague Spring residency will consist of four concerts.

The second project of her artistic residency at the Prague Spring is also the festival debut of the Belcea Quartet. The string quartet, which was formed in 1994 at the Royal College of Music in London, is today one of the world’s most highly respected chamber ensembles. They regularly appear in London’s Wigmore Hall, at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris, New York’s Carnegie Hall and Vienna’s Konzerthaus. In the years 2017–2020 the quartet was Ensemble-in-Residence at the Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin. The German daily Hamburger Abendblatt wrote that “the Belcea Quartet plays concerts for eternity.”