Rafael Kubelik was born in 1914 near Prague. As the son of the world famous violinist Jan Kubelik he had the ideal conditions to begin a musical career, and very early on he chose his own path. After studying at the Prague Conservatoire he stepped in to direct the Czech Philharmonic on tours of Great Britain and Belgium in 1937 and 1938. From 1939-1941 he was Musical Director of the Moravian State Opera in Brno, and in 1942 he became Principal Conductor of the Czech Philharmonic (in Prague). He was passionate in his campaigning for freedom, both artistic and humanitarian and as a fanatical anti-communist he emigrated to the west in 1948, becoming Musical Director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra from 1950-1953 and the Royal Opera House Covent Garden from 1955-1958.

Rafael Kubelik found his ideal workplace in Munich, where, as Principal Conductor of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra for eighteen years, he left his mark on Munich\\\'s musical life and brought his orchestra international acclaim. The Kubelik era ended in 1985 when, as Guest Conductor, he was forced to call off a concert due to illness. As a result of this he terminated his conducting career and dedicated himself earnestly to composition. After the breakdown of the left-wing dictator-ship in 1990 he returned to Prague to celebrate the triumph with a performance of Smetana\\\'s “My Fatherland”. Rafael Kubelik died in 1996.

Kubelik was a strong and diverse personality, renowned in the musical capitals of the world as a tireless perfectionist who, in spite of a powerful emotional impetus and alert intellect, never aspired to stardom. The concept of adhering strictly to musical texts was alien to Kubelik. He strove rather to realise his vision of the work-in-hand, which he did with the instinctiveness of a conductor who also composes. As with several of his great contemporaries (e.g. Bernstein, Solti) his presence and charisma were tremendous while conducting and while “governing” (as he jokingly called it). Nothing would escape him, even on the spur of the moment, and he would react immediately with spontaneity and decisiveness. His artistic creed was clearly formulated: “I believe that music and art can only then be legitimate when they endeavour to improve humanity without that aesthetic justification Art would remain an ingenious game.”

Walter Hilgers has been permanent guest conductor and honorary artistic director of the “Paul Constantinescu” Philharmonic Orchestra Ploieşti since 2016. From 2007 to 2014, he served as principal guest conductor of the Banat Philharmonic Orchestra Timişoara, and from 2017 to 2020 he served as the Chief Conductor of the Santa Fe Provincial Symphony Orchestra in Argentina. As a guest conductor, he has led, among others: The Montevideo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Montevideo National Symphony Orchestra, the Buenos Aires National Orchestra, the Buenos Aires Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestra of the Teatro Argentino in La Plata, the Mendoza Philharmonic Orchestra, the UNCUYO Symphony Orchestra Mendoza, the Porto Alegre Symphony Orchestra, the Bogotá Philharmonic Orchestra, the Košice State Philharmonic Orchestra, the Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra, the Nice Philharmonic Orchestra, the State Academic Chapel St. Petersburg, the Brandenburg State Orchestra Frankfurt, the Munich Radio Orchestra, the Orchestra of the National Theatre Mannheim, the Radio Chamber Orchestra Bucharest, the Radio Symphony Orchestra Bucharest, the George Enescu Philharmonic Orchestra Bucharest, the Romanian State Philharmonic Orchestras in Arad, Bacău, Cluj, Craiova, Iaşi, Oradea, Sibiu, Târgu Mureş, Timişoara and the Philharmonic Orchestras of Piteşti and Ploieşti. In addition, he has conducted chamber concerts of the Bavarian State Orchestra Munich, the Philharmonic State Orchestra Hamburg, the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern, the Mecklenburgische Staatskapelle Schwerin, the Philharmonic Orchestra Qatar, the Daejeon Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Valencia Symphony Orchestra. Walter Hilgers was born in Stolberg in the Rhineland. He received his instrumental training in tuba, double bass, and piano at the Cologne University of Music and Dance in Aachen, Germany. His engagements as a tuba player took him to the Düsseldorf Symphony Orchestra, the Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra, the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, the Bayreuth Festival Orchestra and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. He was a founding member of the German Brass ensemble and served at the ensemble from 1984 to 2007. In 1988, the city of Bayreuth awarded him the coveted Bayreuth "Eichala" for his many years of participation in the Bayreuth Festival. Professor i. R. Walter Hilgers has taught at the Lübeck University of Music, the Cologne University of Music and Dance in Aachen and Düsseldorf, the Hamburg University of Music and Theatre, the Franz Liszt University of Music in Weimar and the Conservatorio Superior de Música de Aragón in Zaragoza. His activities as a teacher, soloist, chamber musician and conductor in recent decades have taken him to other European countries, the USA, Latin America, Australia, and Asia. Walter Hilgers has performed on almost all the world's famous stages, such as the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, the Centro Cultural Kirchner in Buenos Aires, the Carnegie Hall in New York, the Sydney Opera House, the Suntory Hall in Tokyo, the Tokyo Opera City Concert Hall, the Sapporo Concert Hall, the Sala São Paulo, the Bolshoi Theatre, the Moscow Conservatory Hall, the St. St. Petersburg Philharmonic Hall, the Royal Albert Hall London, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the Concert Hall of the KKL Lucerne, the Bucharest Athenaeum, the Gewandhaus Leipzig, the Cologne Philharmonic Hall, the Bayreuth Festspielhaus, the Berlin Philharmonic Hall, the Vienna State Opera and the Vienna Musikverein. Website: www.walterhilgers.com