Collegium 1704, Collegium Vocale 1704 & Václav Luks
Biography Collegium 1704, Collegium Vocale 1704 & Václav Luks
Collegium 1704 and Collegium Vocale 1704
are acclaimed for their recordings (Diapason d’Or, Gramophone Magazine) as well as opera projects (Mysliveček‘s Olimpiade nominated for International Opera Awards, Händel‘s Rinaldo) and concerts (with Magdalena Kožená, Bejun Mehta etc.). Their recent concert appearances include Salzburger Festspele, Theater an der Wien, Luzerner Festival, Konzerthaus Wien, Wratislavia Cantans, residences in Oude Muziek Utrecht and Bachfest Leipzig and own concerts series in Prague and Dresden.
The Prague baroque orchestra Collegium 1704 and the vocal ensemble Collegium Vocale 1704 were founded by the harpsichordist and conductor Václav Luks in 2005 on the occasion of the project Bach — Praha — 2005, and since then they have appeared regularly at the Prague Spring Festival. Since 2007, Collegium 1704 has become a regular guest at festivals around Europe. 2008 saw the founding of the concert series Music Bridge Prague — Dresden, celebrating the 10th anniversary last year, renewing the rich cultural links between the two cities. Collaboration with renowned soloists such as Magdalena Kožená, Vivica Genaux, and Bejun Mehta naturally led, in 2012, to a second concert series titled Collegium 1704 in the Rudolfinum. From autumn 2015, the two concert series were merged into a single season held in both Prague and Dresden. International success with opera performances of Handel's Rinaldo was followed by Josef Mysliveček's opera L'Olimpiade, nominated for the International Opera Awards, and by Antonio Vivaldi’s Arsilda, regina di Ponto performed in a modern era premiere. Recent concert appearances include the Salzburg Festival (2015, 2016), the Philharmonie in Berlin, London's Wigmore Hall, the Theater an der Wien, the Konzerthaus in Vienna, the Lucerne Festival, BOZAR (Palais des Beaux-Arts) in Brussels, the Warsaw Chopin Festival, Wratislavia Cantans, a residency at the prestigious festival Oude Muziek in Utrecht, and the Leipzig Bachfest. In 2014, Collegium 1704 and Václav Luks collaborated with Bejun Mehta on a DVD project of Gluck's opera Orfeo ed Euridice and a BBC Two documentary Mozart in Prague, starring Rolando Villazón. Its recordings have enjoyed the continuous acclaim of the general public and music critics alike, winning awards including the Diapason d’Or, CD of the Month, Editor’s Choice, and a nomination for the Gramophone Awards by Gramophone Magazine. New recordings of Josef Mysliveček’s violin concertos and Johann Sebastian Bach’s oboe concertos and cantatas, released both in 2018, expanded the series of successful CDs (J. S. Bach’s Mass in B Minor, J. D. Zelenka’s Missa Divi Xaverii in the world premiere and Zelenka’s sonatas — both awarded by a prestigious Diapason d’Or).
Václav Luks
began his studies at the Pilsen Conservatory and at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (French horn, Harpsichord). He then continued his studies with specialized research on early music at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Basel, Switzerland in the studios of J.–A. Bötticher and J. B. Christensen in the field of period keyboard instruments and historical performance practice. During his studies in Basel and in the years that followed, he gave concerts all over Europe and overseas (USA, Mexico, Japan) as the horn soloist of the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin. After returning from abroad in 2005, he transformed Collegium 1704 from a chamber music ensemble that had already existed when he was a conservatory student into a Baroque orchestra, and he founded Collegium Vocale 1704.
The immediate impetus for their founding was a project initiated by Václav Luks titled "Bach – Prague – 2005" presenting the major vocal works by J. S. Bach. This project marks the beginning of residential collaboration with the Prague Spring International Music Festival. With Václav Luks, Collegium 1704 has quickly established itself among the world’s elite ensembles devoted to performing the music of the 17th and 18th centuries, and with his international artistic activities, Luks has played a significant part in the renaissance of the music of the Bohemian composers Jan Dismas Zelenka and Josef Mysliveček. In 2008, he founded the successful concert series Music Bridge Prague – Dresden. Since the autumn of 2012, Václav Luks is regularly invited at Prague’s Rudolfinum, where he realizes a concert series with Collegium 1704 that focuses on the art of singing in the 17th and 18th centuries.
Václav Luks has made both orchestral and solo recordings for the ACCENT, Supraphon, and Zig-Zag Territoires labels, and he has been invited to sit on juries of international competitions (Johann Heinrich Schmelzer Wettbewerb Melk, Prague Spring International Music Competition, Bach-Wettbewerb Leipzig).
Recent and upcoming concert appearances of Václav Luks with his ensembles include the 2015 Salzburger Festspiele (also 2016), Berliner Philharmonie, Theater an der Wien, Konzerthaus Wien, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Wigmore Hall, Versailles, Lucerner Festival, Chopin Festival and prestigious residences at the Utrecht Early Music Festival and Bachfest Leipzig. Besides working intensively with Collegium 1704, he also collaborates with other renowned ensembles, such as La Cetra Barockorchester Basel, Dresdner Kammerchor or the Nederlandse Bachvereniging. Most recently he conducted Leclair's Scylla et Glaucus at Kiel Opernhaus.
