Prague Castle International organ festival - in St. Vitus Cathedral

Ondřej Valenta is an organist at St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague, a concert organist, and a teacher at the Prague Conservatory. Between 2016 and 2024, he served as organist and choirmaster of the Royal Collegiate Chapter at Vyšehrad, where he founded the international festival “Organ Vyšehrad”. He studied at the Prague Conservatory and the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, and continued his education at the Mozarteum University in Salzburg and in Munich. He performs with soloists, choirs, and orchestras, and appears at festivals across the Czech Republic and in many European countries.

The Symphony Prague orchestra, founded in 2008, brings together leading players from the Czech Philharmonic, Prague Symphony Orchestra (FOK), Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra and the National Theatre Orchestra. Symphony Prague appears on major European stages and acts as an ambassador for Czech music in Germany, France, Spain, and Austria. Its repertoire includes works by Dvořák, Smetana, Janáček, and other great composers. The ensemble collaborates with leading soloists, and its principal conductor is Štefan Britvík.

Conductor and organist Johannes Skudlik is from Munich and performs internationally with orchestras such as the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, and I Virtuosi Italiani. He has appeared at the Philharmonie Berlin, the Elbphilharmonie, and the Sagrada Família, and in 2022 made his debut at the Teatro La Fenice. His repertoire includes Mahler, Bruckner, Tchaikovsky, and Berlioz. Since 2016, he has served as principal guest conductor at Symphony Prague and leads masterclasses around the world.

The program will be further enriched by a concert featuring a symphony orchestra and a special evening with a guest soloist on the French horn. A true celebration of organ music awaits. The 15th edition will be extraordinary in many respects. For the first time, the festival will feature the new and long-awaited cathedral organ. Additionally, visitors can look forward to a double portion of musical experiences, with a total of ten concert evenings.

Above the chapel is situated chamber guarding the crown jewels of Bohemian kings. The coronations of the kings of Bohemia were held in the Cathedral until 1836.  The first architect Matthias of Arras, who was called by Charles IV from Avignon, mediated the model of the French cathedral architecture. Matthias´s successor, genius Petr Parléř, gived to the cathedral and its sculptural decoration features of artistic excellence.

After the death of Charles IV the building was suspended and the cathedral remained a torso. The construction was not completed until the beginning of the 20th century, when the western part was completed and decorated by leading artists of the era (V. Sucharda, A. Mucha etc.). The St. Vitus Cathedral is an excellent example of Gothic architecture and masterpiece of art.