The Prague Philharmonic Choir (formerly Czech Philharmonic Chorus) is one of the world’s most prominent and highly regarded choral bodies. Founded as the Czech Choir in 1935 by the opera singer and director Jan Kühn, the ensemble was originally affiliated with Czechoslovak Radio; in 1953, it was integrated with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra. Under Kühn’s successors, Josef Veselka, Veselka’s pupil Lubomír Mátl, and Jaroslav Brych, the choir has developed into a fully professional ensemble and assumed an important role on the international concert scene. It has collaborated with such renowned conductors as Erich Kleiber, Hermann Scherchen, George Szell, Karl Böhm, Rafael Kubelík, Václav Neumann, Leonard Bernstein, Seiji Ozawa, Zubin Mehta, Lorin Maazel, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Kurt Masur, Charles Dutoit, Riccardo Muti, Riccardo Chailly, Claudio Abbado, Christoph von Dohnányi, David Zinman, Sir Simon Rattle, and Sir Charles Mackerras. Independent since 1990, the choir now performs and records regularly with the world’s great orchestras, including the Berlin, Vienna, and Israel philharmonics, the Royal Concertgebouw—and, of course, the Czech Philharmonic.
