The committee
The foundation has a committee consisting of a chairman and deputy, and a treasurer. There is a general meeting for all members once a year. Committee members may meet more often as required. The Annual General Meeting nominates the resident officers who report back to the committee. The inaugural meeting is took place on 25th September 2018.
Compulsory membership
Members of the orchestra must join the foundation as members. All members of a family can be included in one membership, paying the same as an individual. Membership fees are decided by the annual general meeting of the foundation and may vary from year to year. Apart from this membership fee there should normally be no further financial demands upon the musicians, who will however be expected to provide and maintain their own instruments. Parents may also be asked to make a financial contribution towards travel and accommodation in the case of activities outside Prague.
Honorary membership
Famous musicians and other outstanding personalities may be asked to become honorary members of the foundation, exempt from membership fees. The names of such personalities can be used to demonstrate a type of support that will be particularly important in helping to establish the orchestra. Advice from honorary members will be particularly welcome in guiding the first steps.
Membership privileges
All foundation members will receive regular news of the orchestra’s activities and will have first choice of concert tickets before these are made available to the public. Some activities such as the annual Christmas concert may be open to members only.
Resident officers
Once the orchestra becomes more established it may well be that more officers (for example a secretary) are required. At present only two resident officers will be required, a CEO and a Music Director. The Annual General Meeting appoints the resident officers who report back to the committee. Resident officers should be bound by contract for periods of three or five years.
CEO
Hans Kistler was born in 1975 and grew up in the Upper Palatinate area of Bavaria. He studied in Regensburg and in Edinburgh and spent 15 years teaching English and History in German grammar schools. He studied clarinet with Peter Gärtner (Regensburg Philharmonic Orchestra) and in Scotland with Josef Pacewitz (Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Glasgow). His chamber music partners have included Renaud Arbion (Tours), Ashley Fripp (London) and Gerold Huber (Munich). In 2008 he played as soloist with the Chamber Orchestra of Regensburg University (KUR) in the Konzerthaus am Gendarmenmarkt, Berlin. In 2012 he recorded a CD with the Chamber Orchestra of Regensburg University for the Spektral label with music by Janáček and Gershwin, arranged for clarinet and strings. In 2015 he helped to found the ensemble KammerVielharmonie , which consists of different groups of musicians, varying from chamber music to a small symphony orchestra.
Music Director
Music Director
Graham Buckland was born in Weymouth, England on 27th January 1951. He studied in Cambridge, London, Brno and Prague before starting a 20-year career as opera conductor, which took him to theatres in Prague, Ústí nad Labem (Aussig), Nuremberg, Hanover and Oldenburg. He was principal conductor in Hildesheim and Brno and has appeared frequently as guest conductor with orchestras in Europe and America. In 1995 he became director of the university orchestra of Regensburg and proceeded to build up a remarkable assortment of orchestras and chamber music ensembles. His work soon received international recognition, especially with CDs for the Spektral label. Graham retired from this position in 2016 but is still active as a conductor and composer. His Bärenreiter collections of Christmas music, hymns and spirituals are known all over the world. David, a full-length oratorio was performed in 2016 by the Regensburg University Chorus and Orchestra to mark his retirement. No Stress and Bileam’s Donkey, two musicals for children, have just been performed in Tegernheim. Ten Psalms was premiered in Darmstadt 2017 and Two Chapter, a St Mark Passion for solo voice and 12 musicians, was performed on Good Friday 2018 in Regensburg.