Collegium Marianum Prague

Artistic director: Jana Semerádová

Since it was founded in 1997, the Prague ensemble Collegium Marianum has focused on revitalising the music of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. One of the few professional companies specialising in this field in the Czech Republic, it not only gives concerts of works in particular by composers who were born or active in central Europe, but also regularly performs unique musical drama and dance productions. Several modern day world premieres are presented each year. The ensemble has collaborated with renowned European directors, choreographers, conductors and soloists such as: Andrew Parrott, Simon Standage, Chiara Banchini, Benjamin Lazar, Sergio Azzolini, Peter Kooij, Peter van Heyghen or Sigrid T´Hooft. Since 1999 the company has been under the artistic leadership of flautist Jana Semerádová, whose active research together with her study of baroque gesture, declamation and dance, has enabled her to gradually broaden the profile of the Collegium Marianum ensemble and present operas and intermezzos in the authentic surroundings of Czech baroque theatres. The Collegium Marianum ensemble has received critical acclaim both at home and abroad. It regularly performs at music festivals and on prestigious podia both in the Czech Republic and elsewhere in Europe, for example Tage Alter Musik Regensburg, Bachfest Leipzig, Mozartfest, Pražské jaro, Festival de Sablé, Concentus Moraviae, Bolzano Festival, Mitte Europa, Palau de Música Barcelona. The orchestra's recordings include four recordings by Supraphon entitled "Music From Eighteenth-Century Prague" - Concertos & arias by J. J. I. Brentner, Rorate coeli / Music for Advent and Christmas in Baroque Prague, F. Jiránek - Concertos and Sinfonias and J. D. Zelenka - Sepolcri, two part anthology Music of Baroque Prague I (2003) and Music of Baroque Prague II (2005) and Concerti, Op. 7 by J. H. Albicastro in collaboration with Collegium 1704. In January 2010 Collegium Marianum was awarded by the Czech Music Council, the Czech section of the International Music Council by UNESCO, for the credits of quality and for the general propagation of Czech music.