The Prague Chamber Soloists

The Prague Chamber Soloists, the longest performing string orchestra of its kind in the Czech Republic. In 1961, the violist of the Prague Symphony Orchestra of the Capital City of Prague FOK, Hubert Simacek and legendary conductor Václav Neumann stood at the birth of the nsemble. As the name of the orchestra given to it by them suggests, the ensemble was made up of musicians who had solo ambitions but also collaborated with leading Czech and foreign soloists and conductors of that time. Among the most important were violinists Henryk Szeryng, Josef Suk, Gidon Kremer, Vaclav Hudecek, flutist Jean-Pierre Rampal, harpsichordist Zuzana Růžičková, and conductor Libor Pešek. Throughout its existence, the Prague Chamber Soloists (PKS) has performed in the most prestigious concert halls in Europe, Japan, Canada and at major music festivals. They cooperated on music programs for Czech Television and made many award-winning recordings.

The renewed premiere of the PKS took place in 2013 as part of the Prague Music Fetsival, under the artistic direction of the horn player and conductor Radek Baborák. During the following years, the Prague Chamber Soloists have presented themselves to the audience of the International Music Festival Lípa Musica – in 2017 at the closing gala evening with soloist Adam Plachetka and in 2018 in Bauzen in Germany. The PKS ensemble has repeatedly collaborated with TV Noe as part of Václav Hudeček’s concert project Má Vlast, in 2020 it will present itself to the audience at the Autumn Festival of Sacred Music in Olomouc and in 2021 at the Antonín Dvořák Music Festival Příbram.

Since the 2022/23 season, the Prague Chamber Soloists have been the ensemble-in-residence of the Prague Symphony Orchestra.

Currently, the members of this ensemble are soloists, chamber players, concert masters and members of the Czech Philharmonic, Prague Symphony Orchestra, National Theatre Orchestra, PKF – Prague Philharmonia and Czech Sinfonietta, professors of the Prague Academy of Music and the Prague Conservatory.

The PKS repertoire including compositions for the string orchestra of the Baroque period up to the 20th century and contemporary music.