Following the Czech National Symphony Orchestra’s triumphant 30th Anniversary U.S. tour in 2023, including the ensemble’s Carnegie Hall debut, the Czech National Symphony Orchestra returns in February 2025.
Under the baton of music director Steven Mercurio, the CNSO will feature two dynamic soloists, violinist Sandy Cameron and pianist Maxim Lando along with legendary symphonic favorites by Antonin Dvorak.
Czech National Symphony Orchestra (biography)
Czech National Symphony Orchestra
Over the past 30 years the Czech National Symphony Orchestra has grown to become one of the leading Czech ensembles, currently ranking among the most highly sought- after orchestras in Europe. Its glowing reputation can be attributed to the members’ versatility, performing a wide range of genres, spanning classical works, film music and jazz, as well as musicals, which attract large domestic and international audiences.
Notable conductors, composers and film directors who have been collaborating with the orchestra or who worked with them at concerts and in the CNSO Studio in Prague include Lalo Schifrin, Pino Donaggio, Giuliano Taviani, Danny Elfman, Hans Zimmer, James Newton Howard, Quentin Tarantino, Vince Mendoza, Giuseppe Tornatore, Carl Davis, Steven Mercurio, Marcello Rota, Vladimir Cosma, Christian Lindberg and Chick Corea.
We should also mention the valuable and long-standing collaboration the orchestra enjoyed with the legendary Ennio Morricone (1928-2020), involving studio recordings and a series of concerts performed on numerous European tours.
In the studio the orchestra has recorded a wealth of wonderful music, including a Christmas album with acclaimed tenors Plácido Domingo and Vittorio Grigolo, as well as music for Tarantino’s Western The Hateful Eight. On the strength of the aforementioned concert collaboration, the composer Ennio Morricone also booked the Czech National Symphony Orchestra for a recording, and they subsequently created a truly exceptional soundtrack together at London’s famous Abbey Road studio. Morricone’s music went on to pick up a number of awards, among them a Golden Globe, a BAFTA and an Oscar.
In recent years, artists to have performed on several occasions with the orchestra include Andrea Bocelli, Rolando Villazón, José Carreras, Plácido Domingo, Jonas Kaufmann, as well as Piotr Beczala, while in the field of pop music collaborations have included top names such as Sting, George Michael, Natalie Cole, Dianne Reeves, Angélique Kidjo, Denise Donatelli and Ute Lemper, along with instrumentalists James Morrison, Branford & Wynton Marsalis, Bobby Shew, Joe Lovano, John Abercrombie, John Patitucci, Dave Weckl, Chick Corea and many more.
Since 2005, the CNSO has organized the Prague Proms International Music Festival, and it is also its resident ensemble. In 2012, the Prague Proms o. p. s. agency took over the organization of the festival directly. In addition to its subscription series the orchestra also travels abroad on international tours. Alongside almost all countries in Europe, the CNSO has performed in places as far flung as the United States, Japan, Australia, South Korea, China, Dubai, Oman, Canada and Mexico.
In the spring of 2016, the orchestra travelled on a tour of the United States, where (after a successful concert at the 2015 Prague Proms festival) it performed a spectac- ular show Disney Fantasia: Live in Concert. 2017 saw the orchestra head off on a month-long European tour with film com- posers Ennio Morricone and James Newton Howard. 2018 brought an interesting opportunity for the orchestra to tour Europe with the acclaimed musical La La Land, and notably, as part of the Symphonic Cinema project, they toured the UK for nearly two months, performing a programme of box-office Hollywood evergreens, conducted by Ben Palmer.
In 2019 the orchestra set off on a promising extended tour of the United States, however, at the beginning of 2020, it was forced to scale back its concert activities due to the global pandemic. Nevertheless, the ensemble responded quickly to the changing landscape by arranging its live performances online. The orchestra is currently launching its new internet platform NetConcert.
The CNSO’s activities on the concert platform have now resumed their standard tempo. After accompanying Plácido Domingo at his performance in the Czech Republic during the summer of 2021, it accepted a collaboration with the world-famous writer and composer Dan Brown, performing his Wild Symphony in Prague.
The orchestra is currently based at the above-mentioned recording Studio No. 1, otherwise known as the “Gallery”, where it has earned several gold CDs for the sale of more than 30,000 media, also the Gustav Mahler Prize for the interpretation of the composer’s works and, in particular, prestigious contracts with IMG Artists in London and APM in New York.
A long-term recording project in cooperation with the Japanese publishing house JVC Victor Entertainment stands out as yet another significant achievement, so far resulting in fifty CDs and 8 DVDs.
The notional pinnacle for the CNSO was the Grammy Award it won in April 2022 in the category “Best Arrangement, Instruments and Vocals”. The award was given for the composition To The Edge of Longing from Vince Mendoza’s record Freedom Over Everything.
Vince Mendoza was nominated twice for two different tracks from this al- bum, which was recorded together with the Czech National Symphony Orchestra in the CNSO’s Studio No. 1. Moreover, the orchestra’s director Jan Hasenöhrl was also the initiator of the project and the record’s producer.
Trumpet player Jan Hasenöhrl launched the Czech National Symphony Orchestra in 1993 together with legendary conductor Zdeněk Košler; the ensemble then enjoyed ten wonderful years under the direction of American conductor Paul Freeman (1996–2006).
From 2007 the orchestra was led by chief conductor Libor Pešek. This partnership was exceptional, whether they were working together in concert during their subscription series or on the five hugely successful tours around Great Britain. These concerts have earned the CNSO an enviable reputation with British audiences, and the orchestra regularly returns to the country.
One particularly noteworthy, historic achievement was the recording marathon undertaken between 2007 and 2017 when, led by Libor Pešek, the CNSO made a complete recording of Gustav Mahler’s symphonies.
In the spring of 2019, following the departure of Libor Pešek, the post of conductor was assumed by American artist Steven Mercurio. This outstanding musician, a pupil of Leonard Bernstein, has been working with the orchestra for several years now, a collaboration that continues to deliver a number of exceptional projects.
Steven Mercurio (biography)
Steven Mercurio
Maestro Steven Mercurio is an internationally acclaimed conductor and composer whose musical versatility encompasses the symphonic and operatic worlds. After receiving his Masters degree from the Juilliard School, he lived in Italy for a year and composed “For Lost Loved Ones,” a large-scale symphonic tone poem premiered by the New York Philharmonic with Zubin Mehta conducting. From 1985 through 1988, he was Assistant and then Associate Conductor for the Brooklyn Philharmonic under Lukas Foss. From 1987 through 1991 he was Assistant Conductor for the Metropolitan Opera. From 1988 to 1991 he was the Assistant Composer in Residence for the New York Philharmonic. He was Principal Conductor for the Opera Company of Philadelphia from 1990 through 1997 and simultaneously, from 1993 to 1997 became Music Director of the Spoleto Festival working alongside Gian Carlo Menotti. Following in the footsteps of his teacher, Leonard Bernstein, Maestro Mercurio is a conductor and a composer that believes in creating an inclusive musical environment, stressing music education and community involvement. His versatility has made him a sought after collaborator for many award winning recordings, arrangements and film projects.
For the stage, he has conducted more than fifty different operas in seven different languages. His engagements have taken him to many of the world’s best loved opera houses including the Teatro dell’Opera, Roma; Teatro Bellini, Catania; Teatro Filarmonico, Verona; Teatro Reggio, Torino; Teatro Verdi, Trieste; Theatre de la Monnaie in Brussels, Bonn Opera, Teatro Massimo, Palermo, English National Opera as well as the American opera companies of San Francisco, Washington, Philadelphia, Seattle, Detroit, Opera Pacific, Florida Grand, Pittsburgh, Dallas and Cincinnati.
In addition to Maestro Mercurio’s operatic repertoire, his symphonic appearances have included: the London Philharmonia, London Philharmonic, London Sinfonietta, the Royal Philharmonic, Vienna Symphony Orchestra, Luxembourg, Prague Philharmonia, Czech Ntaional Symphony Orchestra, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, Seoul Philharmonic, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, New Jersey Symphony Orchestra and the Sacramento and San Diego Symphony Orchestras in addition to his own Spoleto Festival Orchestra.
Sandy Cameron (biography)
Sandy Cameron
Declared “brilliant” by the Washington Post, violinist Sandy Cameron is one of the most strikingly unique artists of her generation. Since her debut at the age of 12 in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, Ms. Cameron has performed extensively as a soloist throughout the world. Here are some highlights of Sandy’s work:
Places and Orchestras: Ms. Cameron has been recognized on stages worldwide and in a variety of settings. The White Nights Festival in St. Petersburg, Russia, and the Adelaide Festival of the Arts in Australia are among a number of unique performance experiences Ms. Cameron has had. She has appeared at venues such as the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center, the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, Germany, and the Sydney Opera House. Ms. Cameron has collaborated with numerous orchestras, including the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Kirov Orchestra, Seattle Symphony, Colorado Symphony Orchestra, Virginia Symphony Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra, and Tokyo Philharmonic.
On Stage: The most noteworthy, and a truly rewarding experience of Ms. Cameron’s career as a concert soloist is Danny Elfman’s Violin Concerto, “Eleven Eleven”. Mr. Elfman wrote this concerto for Ms. Cameron, and she had the great pleasure and honor of presenting the world premiere with conductor John Mauceri at the Prague Proms in June 2017. It was received with great success, and Ms. Cameron continues to enjoy performing the piece for audiences worldwide. Other recent special stage appearances include her partnership with Marco Beltrami on Bach by Beltrami, as well as performances for Cirque du Soleil, Tan Dun’s Martial Arts Trilogy, and Danny Elfman’s Music from the Films of Tim Burton. Ms. Cameron has also been a featured guest in performances with renowned jazz trumpeter-composer Chris Botti, with whom she has toured globally. Additionally, Ms. Cameron has written and performed her own musical arrangements for a number of productions at the Hollywood Bowl, including Disney’s The Nightmare Before Christmas Live in Concert, Disney’s The Little Mermaid Live in Concert, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory Live in Concert, and Disney’s Beauty and the Beast Live in Concert.
In the Studio: Versatile in her abilities as an artist, Ms. Cameron also enjoys musical engagements off the stage. In 2018, she recorded the Elfman Violin Concerto with Maestro Mauceri and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, available on Sony Classical. Currently, she is featured as a soloist in Bear McCreary’s music for Season 1 of Amazon Prime’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. Ms. Cameron is also featured soloist on soundtracks to John Powell’s Migration and The Call of the Wild, Bear McCreary’s, The Professor and The Madman, Cirque Du Soleil’s IRIS, the video games Call of Duty: Vanguard and Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate, the History Channel’s Houdini, and more.
The outstanding violin used by Ms. Cameron, crafted by Pietro Guarnerius of Venice, c. 1735, is on extended loan through the generous efforts of the Stradivari Society® of Chicago.
Maxim Lando (biography)
Maxim Lando
American pianist Maxim Lando has been described as a “dazzling fire-eater” (ARTS San Francisco) and “a total musical being” (The New Criterion). He was lauded by Anthony Tommasini in the New York Times as displaying “brilliance and infectious exuberance” combined with “impressive delicacy” and a “wild-eyed danger.”
Maxim first made international headlines performing together with Lang Lang, Chick Corea, and The Philadelphia Orchestra led by Yannick Nézet-Séguin at Carnegie Hall’s 2017 Opening Night Gala. Since then, he has performed with major orchestras around the world including Pittsburgh Symphony, Russian National Orchestra, Toronto Symphony, Israel Philharmonic, Mariinsky Theater Orchestra, Vancouver Symphony, Zurich Chamber Orchestra, Moscow Philharmonic, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, St. Petersburg Symphony, Memphis Symphony, Hawaii Symphony, and many others.
A recipient of the prestigious Gilmore Young Artist Award, Maxim is also First Prize winner in both the 2022 New York Franz Liszt International Competition and The Vendome Prize 2021/22. He continues to garner international attention on the largest stages, this past year returning to Carnegie Hall to perform Liszt Piano Concerto No. 1 with Orchestra of St. Luke’s led by Gabor Hollerung. As winner of the 2021 Juilliard Concerto Competition, he made his Alice Tully Hall debut performing Rachmaninoff Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini with the Juilliard Orchestra led by Xian Zhang.
In 2020 Maxim was named Musical America’s New Artist of the Month, and in 2018 at the age 16, Maxim won First Prize at the Young Concert Artists International Auditions. His following sold-out recital debuts at Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall and the Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater included Liszt’s complete Transcendental Etudes and were hailed by the New York Times as a concert “You Won’t Want To Miss!”
Maxim has been featured as a Guest Artist at numerous festivals including Gilmore Piano Festival, Aspen Music Festival, Kissinger Sommer (Germany), Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival (Germany), Ravinia Festival, Rising Stars Munich, and Musical Olympus International Festival (Russia). Recital highlights include performances at the National Center for Performing Arts in Beijing, Alte Oper Frankfurt, Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris, Carnegie Hall Presents, Symphony Hall in Shenzhen, Chicago’s Millennium Park, Lied Center of Kansas, Beethoven Haus in Bonn, GRAMMY Salute to Classical Music, and University of Georgia Athens Presents. He was invited by Lang Lang to perform for the historic opening of Steinway and Sons in Beijing, and performed Rachmaninoff 3rd Concerto for an outdoor audience of 50,000 people with Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra in Madison, Wisconsin.
Maxim is a passionate chamber musician, collaborating with artists such as Daniel Hope, Julian Rachlin, Lynn Harrell, and the Danish String Quartet. He was awarded a 2023 International Classical Music Award (ICMA) for “Into Madness” (recorded by Bavarian Radio on Berlin Classics) with German violinist Tassilo Probst.
Maxim is an alumnus of the Lang Lang International Music Foundation, and studies with longtime mentor Hung-Kuan Chen at The Juilliard School.
SOCIAL MEDIA