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THE SLOVAK PHILHARMONIC CHOIR </font></font>
The Slovak Philharmonic Choir is a prominent representative of the art of Slovak professional choir-singing. It originated in 1946 as the Mixed Choir of the Bratislava Radio and was led in its initial years by its founder, the conductor Ladislav Slovák. In 1955 Jan Maria Dobrodinský took over leadership and in this capacity, which he filled for more than twenty years, was actively involved in the development of the ensemble, incorporated in 1957 (under its present name) into the Slovak Philharmonic body. In 1976 Valentin Iljin accepted the funcion of Choirmaster and was later succeeded by an expert in choir-singing, Lubomír Mátl, followed by Štefan Klimo, Pavol Baxa, Pavol Procházka and Marián Vach. Blanka Juhaňáková (1991-2001) and Jan Rozehnal (1991-2003) continued in the tradition of growth and development of the choir's interpretation level. In the 2003/2004 season the post of Artistic Leader and Main Choirmaster of the Slovak Philharmonic Choir was filled by Marián Vach. Since January 2005 the position of Main Choirmaster has been taken up by Blanka Juhaňáková and since April 2006 the function of Assistent to the Main Choirmaster by Jozef Chabroň. </font /></font />
 During half a century of intense artistic activity, the Slovak Philharmonic Choir has developed into a body of exceptional quality and today belongs to one of the foremost European ensembles of its kind. Its unique technical abilities, refined expression, perfectly balanced voices, interpretational skills, reliability and artistic discipline all add up to supreme performances filled with creative energy and strength, whose co-operation has been praised by many renowned conductors like Claudio Abbado, Serge Baudo, Bertrand de Billy, Jean Claude Casadesus, James Conlon, Dean Dixon, Christoph von Dohnányi, Vladimír Fedosejev, János Ferencsik, Daniele Gatti, Riccardo Chailly, Dimitrij Kitajenko, Zdeněk Košler, Ondrej Lenárd, Alain Lombard, Fabio Luisi, Lorin Maazel, Kurt Masur, Zubin Mehta, Antonio Pedrotti, Libor Pešek, Ľudovít Rajter, Karl Richter, Helmuth Rilling, Peter Schreier, Pinchas Steinberg, Hans Swarowsky, Václav Talich and Emmanuel Villaume. </font></font />
Apart from regular performances at home, the choir undertakes frequent tours abroad, including most European countries, Morocco, Turkey and Japan.</font /></font />
The choir has co-operated with numerous prestigious foreign orchestras e. g. the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonic Orchestras, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Israel Philharmonic and the Orchestre de Paris. It has also contributed to the sparkle of prominent international festivals, like Vienna, Salzburg, Prague, Perugia, Edinbourgh, Berlin, Athens, Madrid, Paris, Munich and Strassburg. </font /></font />
Its rich discography contains recordings for Slovak and foreign television and radio stations and for renowned recording companies like Opus, Supraphon, Deutsche Grammophon, Hungaroton, Sony, Marco Polo, Naxos, Nuova Era, Decca, among others. </font /></font />
In 2006, the sixty years have passed since the founding of the Slovak Philharmonic Choir. This anniversary was celebrated on 27 April 2006 with the performance of Gioacchino Rossini’s Petite Messe solenelle. One of the most important projects of the 2006/2007 season was a collaboration of the Slovak Philharmonic Choir and the Vienna State Opera in the new stage productions of Mussorgsky’s opera, BORIS GODUNOV, which first perfomance of took place in May 2007 in Vienna under the baton of Daniele Gatti. </font /></font />
In the beginning of the 2007/2008 season the Slovak Philharmonic Choir realised the concert tour with the Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra in Switzerland, where performed the Carmina burana by C. Orff and the Fiel Mass by B. Martinů. In October 2007 the choir realised the concerts with the Tonkünstler Orchestra Niederösterreich in Austria, where was performed Missa solemnis by L. van Beethoven.
Last update : 21.08.2008</font />
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