People in the choir
The choir contains over 900 children. Teaching and organising them requires much work and commitment from the large number of people who take care of the children. The choirmasters and mistresses rehearse with the children and prepare them for concerts and theatre performances.
The management of the choir ensures that everything runs smoothly – rehearsals, concerts, theatre performances and tours. Last but not least, the children are helped by those who specialize in voice and dance training or in rehearsing theatre productions.
Jiří Chvála
artistic director and choirmaster
Jiří Chvála graduated from HAMU in Prague with a degree in conducting, and went on to become choirmaster with the Czech Choir (later the Prague Philharmonic Choir) and the Prague Philharmonic Children’s Choir, which he has headed since 1967. He thus directly continued the exceptional legacy of the choir’s founder, Jan Kühn, who was also his professor at the music faculty. He managed the choir’s cooperation with distinguished Czech and foreign conductors, directors, chamber groups and orchestral bodies. He has undertaken a number of tours with the choir, including to prestigious festivals at home and abroad on almost every continent, and made dozens of recordings.
He has led the choir to victory in a number of international competitions (Neerpelt, Princeton, Tolosa, Wuppertal). Since 1958 Jiří Chvála has taught in the conducting department of the Music Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, in 1986 being appointed professor. Over the course of his long artistic and teaching career he has won a large number of awards, including the František Lýsek Award, the Bedřich Smetana Award, an honorary award (II degree) from the Czech Education Ministry, and an award from the Czech Senate and the Czech Ministry of Culture.
On the occasion of a significant life anniversary in 2003, Professor Chvála was awarded a Second Degree Medal by the Minister of Education for his lifelong pedagogical work. In 2014, he received the Gold Medal of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, the institution’s highest honor awarded to distinguished Czech and international scholars and artists who have taught there. In 2023, he was awarded the Medal of Merit (First Degree) by the President of the Czech Republic in recognition of his contributions to education.
He currently works as the chief choirmaster of the concert department and artistic director of the Prague Philharmonic Children’s Choir.
Petr Louženský
choirmaster of the concert choir
Petr Louženský studied flute at Prague’s Academy of Performing Arts with Professor Jan Reidelbauch and conducting with Professor Miroslav Košler and Miriam Němcová. He went on to study Hebrew and Arabic at Prague’s Faculty of Arts and Philosophy. He gained a Doctor degree in conducting at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague in the class of Professor Jiří Chvála and Tomáš Koutník.
He cooperates regularly with Czech orchestras (Pardubice Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra, Bohuslav Martinů Philharmonic in Zlín, Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra of South Bohemia, Moravian Philharmonic in Olomouc and others). Since 2009 he has been a choirmaster of the Prague Philharmonic Children’s Choir. In 2010, with Petr Louženský conducting, the choir was awarded the first prize in the category of children’s choirs at one of the greatest competitions in choral singing in the world in Arezzo, Italy. On the same occasion, Petr was also awarded a special prize for the best conductor of the whole competition. In 2013 he led the Prague Philharmonic Children’s Choir to victory in the prestigious competition in Tolosa, Spain. In 2015 under his leadership the choir toured with great success Australia and New Zealand (including an educational performance in the Sydney Opera House), the last continent that the choir never toured before. A tour of the East Coast of the United States followed in 2018. In 2025, he studied with members of the Prague Philharmonic Children’s Choir and led them during their engagement at the Paris National Opera in productions of the operas The Cunning Little Vixen and Gianni Schicchi.
Světlana Tvrzická
choirmistress of the preparotory choirs
Světlana Tvrzická was born in Moscow. From 1964 – 1974 she attended the English Language School and Children’s School of Choral Singing. She then attended the training institute of the Moscow Academy of Music, studying conducting and choirmastership and graduating in 1979.
During her studies she rehearsed with the children´s choir of Moscow Radio and TV with Professor Popov. She then started to study at the Russian Academy of Music, in the faculty of conducting – choral singing. At the same time she worked as a choirmistress in the Children‘s Music School of Choral Singing in Moscow.
In 1987 she started to work as a choirmistress in the Children’s Music Theatre. In March 1988 she moved to Czechoslovakia. In January 1989 she was admitted to the Prague Philharmonic Children’s Choir, where she works as a choirmistress.
Tereza Bystřická
choirmistress of the preparotory choirs
Tereza Bystřická graduated from Pedagogical Faculty of Charles University in Prague with a degree in music education and choirmastership, studying under Professor Jiří Kolář. She gained her first musical and singing experience as a child, being a member of the Prague Philharmonic Children’s choir for over ten years. Since 1996 she has worked with the choir as a choirmistress. She currently leads the preparatory divisions, sometimes taking part in the work of the concert deaprtment and the preparation of opera performances. In addition to this long-running work, she has worked with a number of other musical bodies (Laetitia Praha, the Prague Teachers’ Choir, Canti di Praga). From 2010 to 2016 she was the artistic head of the children’s choir Svítání (Dawn) at the Štefánikova art school in Prague 5. Since 2014, she has been teaching solo singing at the Primary School in Řevnice.
Teaching and other specialist activities form a major part of her professional life. She regularly teaches singing and voice training in the choir. She is a member of the Nipos-Artama specialist council for children’s choral singing and the Union of Czech Choirs. She also helps to organise the international festival of children’s choirs “Garden of Song” and is regularly invited to participate in the juries at choral competitions and festivals.
Karolína Řepová
choirmistress of the Kühňátka and preparatory choir
Karolína Řepová gained a Master degree at the Pedagogical Faculty of the Charles University in Prague in music education and choir conducting, where she is currently a doctoral student. She studied conducting with Marek Valášek and Jaroslav Brych.
In the Prague Philharmonic Children’s Choir, she leads the youngest department, Kühňátka, and the preparatory departments A and AV, and is also the choirmistress of the mixed choir Ajeto. For a long time she worked as a choirmistress of the concert department of Prazska kantilena children’s choir and Prazska kantilena girl’s choir, where she won numerous awards in choir competitions abroad with both departments of Prazska kantilena (Neerpelt, Limburk, Budapest, Kaunas, Caorle, Tuzla…). The Union of Czech Choirs awarded her the Choirmaster – Junior award for young talented choirmasters and at a competition in Bosnia and Herzegovina she received the Čestmir Dušek award for the best choirmaster of the competition.
She also works as instructor of the Czech Orff Society, she takes part in international masterclasses and workshops and she regularly leads seminars for music teachers and music workshops for children, students and seniors and and is regularly invited to participate in the juries at choral competitions and festivals.
Veronika Holcová
choirmistress of the Kühňátka and preparatory choir
Veronika Holcová graduated the Faculty of Education at Charles University, where she studied choir conducting and music education, and is currently pursuing her doctoral studies at the Department of Music Education. She is also a graduate of the Department of Educational Drama at the Theatre Academy of Performing Arts and a student of alternative theatre there. In her artistic practice, she deals with connecting choral singing and theatre. She is the co-author of several musical and scenic projects, which she has realized mainly within the artistic group Veselé chvíle. She founded this in 2020 at DAMU as an experimental choral ensemble dealing with the form of a staged concert. She also develops this form within other ensembles and projects.
She is also a performer and theatre creator. She is currently also engaged in theatre accompaniment, for example, she has collaborated with the stage of the South Bohemian Theatre Malé divadlo on several productions. She has been involved in working with a children’s choir since an early age. She sang for eighteen years in the Český Krumlov Children’s Choir Medvíďata, with which she participated in many foreign competitions and shows. She gained her first experience as a choirmaster there and is currently increasingly involved in music and theater. She regularly participates in seminars and workshops, through which she expands her education and strives for self-development.
Eliška Hrubá Toperczerová
vocal consultant, stage director
Eliška Hrubá Toperczerová was for many years a member of the Prague Philharmonic Children’s Choir, which gave her a love of singing and the theatre. She studied singing at AVU, graduating from Professor Hájossyová’s class in 1995. During her time at AVU she worked with the Prague Chamber Opera and also made guest appearances at the City Theatre in Ústí nad Labem. In the same theatre she also made her directorial debut (F. Lehár – Land of Smiles), which she had already produced at AMU under the leadership of professors O. Ševčík and J. Kačer.
She has won awards at the Ema Destinnová international singing competition in České Budějovice, in 1998 winning outright. In 2000 she made a guest appearance with the State Opera as Elvira in Mozart’s Don Giovanni at the Estates Theatre in Prague.
She has worked with the Prague Philharmonic Children’s Choir as a voice consultant and stage director since 2005. Amongst other things, she has produced premieres of children’s operas by Jiří Teml and the children’s productions of Animals and Robbers by Otmar Mácha and Václav Trojan’s Beetles. Her dramatisation of Jan Jakub Ryba’s Czech Christmas Mass and its adaptation for the preparatory divisions has become part of the repertoire of the Prague Philharmonic Children’s Choir and is much loved by audiences.
Michaela Dobrovolná
executive director
She comes from Jihlava and studied music management at Janáček Academy of Performing Arts in Brno. Since 2016, she has been the executive director of the Prague Philharmonic Children’s Choir, where she is dedicated to strategic leadership, conceptual development and long-term direction of the choir, including the preparation of artistic projects, partnerships and international cooperation.
She has long specialized in music production and the organization of cultural events. At Bon Art Music, she has been involved in the preparation of concerts, recordings, and music-related publications. She also gained experience in the media environment as a production and news coordinator at TV Barrandov. In addition, she has maintained long-term cooperation with the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.
