Formed in 2016, the Albion Quartet unites four outstanding young string players, brought together by a shared belief in the visceral power of the string quartet. The upcoming season sees the quartet returning to the Wigmore Hall and Aldeburgh Festival, as well as continuing residencies at Sainte-Mère Festival in France and RWCMD in Cardiff. They will be making a number of broadcasts for BBC Radio 3, whilst continuing their recording projects for Signum Records, for whom they are exclusive artists.
Engagements from the 2017-18 season included performances at the Louvre in Paris, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Robert Schumann Gesellschaft in Frankfurt, Båstad Festival in Sweden, Festival of Music in Franconia and Rhine Valley Music Festival in Germany, as well as the Hay Festival in the UK. They were artists in residence at the Ryedale Festival, exploring the chamber works of Dvořák, and are currently recording a Dvořák cycle for Signum Records. They have been invited back for an extended residency to explore the complete set of Mozart’s “Haydn” quartets, with the exciting addition that each one is to be paired with a newly commissioned work.
Their commitment to new music has most recently seen a collaboration with Kate Whitley for a powerful and evocative song cycle, the “Charlotte Mew Songs”, recently performed with soprano Caroline Melzer. Over the summer the quartet is excited to be premiering and touring a new work by Freya Waley-Cohen, co-commissioned by Aldeburgh Festival, the Phillips Collection and Sainte-Mère Festival. In 2019 Ann Beilby joined the Albion Quartet as their new violist. Performances in the 2019-20 season include their US debut at the Phillips Collection in Washington, alongside appearances at several festivals including the Oxford Lieder, Stratford International, Belfast International, Cheltenham, Presteigne, and Lichfield, and participating in Beethoven cycles in the UK and Portugal.
Passionate about musical education, the quartet holds a residency at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama, where they regularly give masterclasses and performances in the Dora Stoutzker Hall. As a Cavatina Chamber Music Trust ensemble, they also give frequent workshops at primary school level where they are thrilled to share the magic of chamber music with children from diverse backgrounds.
The members of the quartet play on a fine collection of instruments, including a Stradivarius and Guarnerius.

The Czech Philharmonic’s very first concert took place on 4 January 1896 in the Rudolfinum and was conducted by Antonín Dvořák. Before the Chief Conductor’s baton was taken up by the first internationally known conductor, Václav Talich, in 1919, the orchestra was directed by Ludvík Čelanský and Vilém Zemánek, as well as, briefly, by Oskar Nedbal. Talich’s great personality was succeeded by other outstanding conductors such as Rafael Kubelík (1942-1948), Karel Ančerl (1950-1968) and Václav Neumann (1968-1990). During the 1990s, the position of Chief Conductor was passed in succession to Jiří Bělohlávek, Gerd Albrecht and Vladimir Ashkenazy, who directed the orchestra until the end of the 2002/2003 season. From the beginning of the 2003/2004 season until 8 September 2007 Zdeněk Mácal held a position as the tenth Chief Conductor of the Czech Philharmonic.
In the 113th season there was no Chief Conductor; some of his powers and duties were exercised by the Principal Guest Conductor Manfred Honeck. The post of the Chief Conductor from the concert season 2009/2010 has been accepted by Eliahu Inbal. Ever since the time of Ančerl’s leadership, the Czech Philharmonic has typically been faced with an extensive travel itinerary that has taken in all the continents. This was also hold true during the 112th concert season, when in addition to concerts in Europe the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra traveled to the USA and Japan. In the 2009/10 season the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra performed in Ireland and the United Kingdom with the conductor Jakub Hrůša; in Japan with Herbert Blomstedt; in Spain with Eliahu Inbal; in Russia with Ion Marin; and in Germany with Nikolas Znaider and Manfred Honeck. The Czech Philharmonic also appeared at a number of festivals in the Czech Republic (Česká Lípa, Chrudim, Brno, Ostrava, Litomyšl and Klatovy).
Of the latest CDs released by the orchestra, recordings made for the Japanese market have recently met with unprecedented acclaim. Zdeněk Mácal and the Czech Philharmonic have been working with Octavia Records to progressively record the complete symphonies of Antonín Dvořák, Gustav Mahler, P. I. Tchaikovsky and Johannes Brahms. The set of Dvořák symphonies conducted by Zdeněk Mácal is almost finished. With Manfred Honeck the Czech Philharmonic continuously records symphonies of Anton Bruckner also for Octavia Records…In 2005, the Czech Philharmonic’s live recording of Mahler’s Third Symphony conducted by Zdeněk Mácal won the Recording of the Year award in Japan. In December 2008, a unique recording was made of Three Fragments from the Opera “Julietta” by Bohuslav Martinů under the direction of Sir Charles Mackerras with a plethora of renowned soloists led by Magdalena Ko�ená. The recording released by Supraphon has received international recognition. In June 2009 the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra published a unique historical recording – 2CDs with Smetana’s My Country and the second series of Dvořák’s Slavonic Dances. The live recording has been compiled from concerts conducted by Václav Talich in 1939.The orchestra makes most of its recordings in the perfect acoustical environment of the Rudolfinum’s Dvořák Hall.
(the source: from the orchestra’s official website)