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The Prague Philharmonic Choir (= PPC) was founded in 1935 by an opera singer and director Jan Kühn (1891-1958) under the name of the Czech Choir, as an ensemble working for the Czechoslovak Radio. In 1953 the body was integrated to the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra. After the death of professor Jan Kühn, Maestro Josef Veselka (1910-1992), one of the most experienced Czech choir conductors, took the batton of the PPC. Under his leadership the choir has been developed into a full professional body with the highest artistic niveau and began to act an important role on the international choir scene. Since 1981 the choir has been conducted by Lubomír Mátl (born 1941), Veselka's pupil and former successful chief choir conductor of Slovak Philharmonic Choir.
The changes in Czechoslovak society after the so called ‘velvet revolution’ in 1989 has reflected also in the cultural field. From January 1, 1990 the PPC has been detached from the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra and became an independent body with full self-government in all respects, attached directly to the Czech Ministery of Culture. Pavel Kühn (born 1938), son of the founder of the choir, was engaged as the chief choir conductor. In May 1996 Jaroslav Brych (born 1964) has taken over this prestigious post. The choir has recently enlarged its repertoire by contemporary music, and together with the new dramaturgy and highest professional quality the PPC has become one of the most demanded professional choirs in the world.
During its existence the choir has performed in almost all European countries as well as in Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, Canarian Islands, Israel and Canada. The PPC has co-operated with a big number of famous conductors, as Kleiber, Konvitschny, Karl Böhm, Schercher, Pedrotti, George Szell, Claudio Abbado, Neumann, Lorin Maazel, Riccardo Muti, Riccardo Chailly, Seiji Ozawa, Prétre, Charles Mackerras, Rozhdestvenskij, Zubin Mehta, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Rafael Kubelík, Leonard Bernstein, Serge Baudo. The PPC is a permanent guest of significant world festivals, as Prague Spring, Salzburg Festival, Wiener Festwochen, Rossini Opera Festival Pesaro, Mahler Festival Amsterdam and others. Besides the interpretation of the vocal-symphonic and a-capella works the PPC co-operated with renowned opera houses (La Scala, San Carlo, Pesaro, Lyon), since 1996 the choir participates with English Chamber Orchestra in an international Mozart opera project Magic Flute. Nowadays the PPC performs regularly with the greatest orchestras, as the Berlin and Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam, Wiener Philharmoniker - to name some of them. |
