Did you enjoy this year’s Firkušný Festival? Prague Spring will also welcome some of the world’s finest pianists, whose artistry is not to be missed.
Igor Levit
One of the world’s most sought-after pianists, Igor Levit, will be Prague Spring’s Artist-in-Residence in 2027. He will appear in a solo recital, perform in a piano trio with violinist Renaud Capuçon and cellist Julia Hagen, and join the Czech Philharmonic under conductor Ádám Fischer for Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3. The icing on the cake will be his nocturne, featuring Palais de Mari by American composer Morton Feldman, a work inspired by Persian carpets and the ruins of an ancient palace at Mari.
20/5 Levit & Capuçon & Hagen
21/5 Levit & Fischer & Czech Philharmonic
21/5 Igora Levit’s Nocturne
22/5 Levit – Beethoven Sonatas
Víkingur Ólafsson
The outstanding Icelandic pianist Víkingur Ólafsson, whose recordings have amassed over a billion views on YouTube, will join the Vienna Philharmonic and conductor John Adams for the Czech premiere of Adams’s Third Piano Concerto, After the Fall, which the composer wrote at Ólafsson’s request. The composer was inspired in his work by Ólafsson’s exceptional interpretation of the works of Johann Sebastian Bach, for which this likeable artist won his first Grammy in 2025. This “skilled DJ blend”, as American station KQED defined Adams’s treatment of Bach’s music, develops the motif from the famous Prelude in C minor from the first part of The Well-Tempered Clavier.
Mao Fujita
Japanese piano superstar Mao Fujita will make his Prague Spring debut at the 2027 festival. He is a regular guest at prestigious venues in Salzburg, Vienna, Paris, Hamburg, New York, Tokyo and San Francisco and he was the very first pianist to appear on the popular YouTube channel The First Take with its 10,5 million subscribers. Mao Fujita will perform Brahms’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, conducted by the outstanding Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla.
23/5 Fujita & Gražinytė-Tyla & Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France
Fred Hersch
The American monthly Vanity Fair described him as “the most arrestingly innovative pianist in jazz over the last decade”, while The New Yorker saluted him as a“living legend”. Fred Hersch, a leading figure on the international jazz scene for more than three decades, will appear at Prague Spring both in a solo recital and alongside legendary American jazz singer and two-time Grammy winner Kurt Elling, with whom he recorded the acclaimed album Leaves of Grass. He will also lead one of the festival’s masterclasses.
19/5 Prague Spring Jazz Series: Fred Hersch
21/5 Masterclass – Fred Hersch
23/5 Prague Spring Jazz Series: Kurt Elling & Fred Hersch
Sehyeok Son
The winner of the 2026 Prague Spring Piano Competition, gifted Korean pianist Sehyeok Son, will be the soloist in the eagerly anticipated Prague Spring Debut. Together with the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra and conductor Piotr Wacławik, he will perform Franz Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 1, of which he says: “I love how the piano and orchestra constantly interact as equal partners, almost like a dramatic dialogue between demons and angels, revealing the contrasting sides of Liszt himself.”
