Festival Committee
Tomáš Čistecký
Clarinetist, National Theatre Orchestra
Graduated from the State Conservatoire in Teplice (clarinet) and the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (1984 – 1988), where he was a student of Prof. Milan Etlík. Currently Mr. Čistecký is a member of the National Theater Opera Orchestra.
In the Carl Maria Weber competitions he won third prize in Munich 1986 and second prize in Warsaw in 1987. Also in 1987, he was awarded a special prize at the Prague Spring International Competition.
An avid chamber musician, Mr. Čistecký is a member of the “Musica per cinque” wind quintet (finalist in the “International Jeunesses Musicales” woodwind quintet competition in Belgrade), as well as the ensemble “Agon Orchestra“, which specializes in contemporary
repertoire.
Chairman
Shihoko Finda
Flutist
Shihoko graduated from the Flute Department of the Tokyo College of Music after attending the Music School at Kitakamakura-Joshigakuen. She participated in the audition for the Newcomers concert in Kanagawa and Tokyo with the recommendation of Tokyo College of Music.
She has performed at many concerts at home and abroad, including a concert sponsored by the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Shihoko has studied the flute under prof. H. Masuyama, M. Kawasaki and Conrad Klemm in Winterthur, Switzerland, where she also mastered the Alexander Technique.
Her focus is now on performing chamber music, as well as coaching junior flautists and providing advice to Japanese and Czech music students and musicians on “breathing techniques and the optimum use of oneself”.
Member
Member
Norbert Heller
Pianist
Norbert Heller was born in the town of Český Těšín, Czech Republic. At the age of 15, he was accepted to the class of Professor Marta Toader at the conservatory in Ostrava. Norbert Heller took part in many internationally renowned piano competitions. He won the Ludwig van Beethoven International Competition in Hradec nad Moravicí, Czech Republic. As one of the youngest participants, he took part in the prestigious Frederick Chopin International Piano Competition in Warsaw (Poland), and the Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition in Moscow (Russia).
He continued studying piano with Professors Ivan Moravec and Jan Panenka at the Prague Academy of Music. N. Heller has performed in many countries in Europe and around the world including the U.S.A. (Chicago, Washington D.C., New York, Phoenix) and Japan (Nagoya, Osaka, Casals Hall in Tokyo). Besides recitals, he has regularly accompanied renowned instrumentalists and singers, and collaborated with various chamber orchestras.
An impressive number of his recordings include Beethoven, Brahms, Mozart, Smetana, Shostakovich, Musorgski, and others.
His outstanding recording of Schubert's Sonatas played on a period Konrad Graff "hammerklavier" received the Best Recording of the Year Award by the Czech Music Foundation. Norbert Heller is the first Czech pianist ever to record complete Sonatas by Mozart. In 2001, he was awarded the European Gustav Mahler Prize.
Member
Roman Hranička
Violinist
Studied at The Music Academy of Performing Arts in Prague with Prof. Jindřich Pazdera and at The Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London with Prof. John Glickman. He has taken part in solo and chamber music master classes with G. Turchaninova, S.
Shipps, Z. Bron, R. Schmidt, J. Meissl, H. Beyerle, A. Kouyoumdjian, etc. He gained two first and two second prizes at the International Kocian Violin Competition. He is a semifinalist of the Wieniawski and Lipiňski competition in Lublin, Poland. As a member of Quasi Trio he won the International Plovdiv Chamber Music
Competition in 2017.
Roman performed several times with the Suk Chamber Orchestra and the PKF - Prague Philharmonia within the music cycle ”Josef Suk introduces young talents“ under the baton of Josef Suk and Jiří Bělohlávek. Among others he played also with the Talich
Chamber Orchestra, Pardubice Chamber orchestra, Bohuslav Martinů Philharmonic Orchestra, etc. In January 2011 he participated in the concert tour for 20 th Anniversary
of the Festival of Young Prague in Japan.
In 2016 he has performed as a member of FamaQ quartet at the Prague Spring International Music Festival. He is a member of PKF
– Prague Philharmonia and FamaQ String Quartet.
Honorary Members
Petr Dvořák