Swedish star not only in the opera world. Malena Ernman is not only a classical musician, she also enjoys crossovers to chanson, pop and rock. She graduated from the Royal Academy of Music and the Conservatoire of Music in Orléans, France. She has performed on many important stages – such as Opera Paris, Staatsoper Berlin, Theater an der Wien, Oper Frankfurt, etc.

She has collaborated with leading conductors (G Dudamel, D Barenboim) and with many distinguished ensembles (Stockholm Royal Symphonic Orchestra, Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra). In 2009 she represented Sweden at the Eurovision Song Contest 2009, where she came 21st with the song “La Voix”.

Contemporary Czech mezzo-soprano star of baroque music. As a soloist, she currently collaborates with the ensembles of the Centre for Baroque Music in Versailles, Akadêmia, Correspondances, Il Festino, La Fenice, La Rêveuse, Le Concert brisé, Les Paladins, Pygmalion, Le Poème Harmonique, Sagittarius and also with the Prague ensemble Musica Florea.

During her career she has performed many key roles in a range of music events in many cities and towns (Paris, Český Krumlov, New Delhi, Lyon, Versailles, Vienna, Avignon, Znojmo and many others).

An ensemble devoted to the stylistic interpretation of works from older periods in authentic interpretation on period instruments. The ensemble has three components: orchestra, vocal ensemble and soloists. Their dramaturgy spans over all genres, particularly Baroque and Classical. The members are professional instrumentalists and singers from the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Poland and Germany.

The ensemble is a resident ensemble of the Znojmo Music Festival, where they have performed a number of Czech and world opera premieres, chamber and cantata concerts, for which it is highly praised by professional critics, including 3 nominations for the Thalia Award. The company has been invited to prestigious festivals throughout Europe. The ensemble cooperates with Czech Television and Radio on recordings of dramaturgically innovative titles (Rameau: Platée, Mysliveček: Montezuma – 1st World Recording, Mozart: The ensemble has recorded several projects for the most important European radio stations WDR and NDR (DE), and regularly records for the EBU (European Broadcasting Union).

A renowned Czech conductor who has conducted most of the orchestras in the Czech Republic during his career. He is the founder and chief conductor of the Czech Ensemble Baroque, artistic director of the Znojmo Music Festival and the Summer School of Baroque Music. Since the beginning of his artistic career, he has focused on vocal-instrumental music of early periods. He has performed with his ensembles at European and national festivals and has recorded dozens of CDs, radio and television recordings.

Roman Válek has received numerous awards for his artistic activity (Alfréd Radok, Ferdinand Vach, Diapason d’Or, Thalia Award nomination, Classic Prague Awards, etc.).

Tomáš Ondřej Pilař is a Czech opera director and stage designer, a graduate of JAMU in Brno. Since 2014 was the head of the Pilsen Opera, since 2020 he has been the head of the South Bohemian Theatre Opera. Among his more than 90 productions are Carmen and La Gioconda at the Janáček Theatre in Brno, Lucia di Lammermoor in Chieti (IT), La Traviata and Tosca in San Remo, Rusalka in Ekaterinburg, Nabucco in Bratislava (SK), Honegger’s Joan of Arc on the Border, Mascagni’s Iris, Bernstein’s Candide in Pilsen (CZ), and Monteverdi’s Orfeo and The Coronation of Poppea at the Margrave Theatre in Bayreuth (D).

His productions are characteristic for their visual elements, detailed work with light, temporality and spiritual focus. As a member of the expert jury he has worked with the Antonín Dvořák Competition in Karlovy Vary, he is part of the team of the winning candidacy of České Budějovice for the European Capital of Culture 2028, Forbes magazine rated him as one of the 30 under 30, and he is a recipient of the Bayreuther Festspiele scholarship. In 2023 he prepared the world premiere of Antonio Caldara’s celebrated serenata La Concordia di Pianeti for the Znojmo Music Festival, which received a wave of favourable reviews.

“This unique work by Antonio Vivaldi, with a content which is more than relevant today, is unique above all for its rich instrumentation (the use of non-traditional instruments). Thanks to the wide instrumentation at the place of the work’s creation – the Ospedale della Pieta orphanage in Venice – but rather a kind of unique musical conservatory – the oratorio is particularly captivating for its musical peculiarities, two recorders as a lullaby, four theorbas at a banquet, a mandolin and a small chalumeau clarinet fluttering like a dove are just a small list of the wonderful colourful moments that abound in this Vivaldi’s work.”

“I’ve met so many lovely people. And the voices! You have so many wonderful singers in the Czech Republic! My colleagues who sing with me in Judith, that’s wonderful. Dagmar Šašková, Doubravka Součková. And so are the other Czech colleagues and Maya Amir, although she’s from Israel. Roman Válek selected us in such a way that it would be a pleasure for me to come back and sing with any of them again.”