The Huygens festival takes place on 11 - 13 September in Voorburg and will be opened by the concert of young musicians representing Visegrád countries. 

Thomas Prchal (cello) will   play  its own compositions accompanied by  pianist Natasja Douma.

Cellist Thomas Prchal  is a student at the Academie Muzikaal Talent (Musical Talent Academy) in Utrecht, where he studies with Jan-Ype Nota, and at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague, where he receives lessons from Michel Strauss. Occasionally he enjoys lessons by Raphaël Pidoux. He has participated in masterclasses from Jerôme Pernoo, Colin Carr, Qin Li-Wei, Harro Ruijsenaars, Wen-Sinn Yang and Jens-Peter Mainz.

Thomas won several prices, for example the overall-winner prize of the Bohuš Heran International Cello Competition (2017) in the Czech Republic, first prize Prinses Christina Compositie Concours (2017), first prize at the Concours de Violoncelle ‘Edmond Baert’ (2018) in Brussels and third prize with an extra special prize at the International Cello Competition ‘David Popper’ (2019) in Hungary.

Besides concerts in the Netherlands, Thomas also regularly performs in France (for example Salle Cortot, Paris), Belgium, Germany, Czech Republic (for example in the Dvořák concert hall Rudolfinum, Prague), Luxembourg, Hungary and Spain (for example Auditorio de Galicia).

As a solist he also performs often with orchestras such as the Real Filharmonía de Galicia, Stuttgarter Kammerorchester, Orkest van het Oosten, Südwestdeutsches Kammerorchester Pforzheim and the Noord Nederlands Orkest. In addition to this, he likes very much to play chamber music. For three years, he was part of the string quartet Young Strings Zeist, with whom he received lessons from members from the Jerusalem, Casals and Schumann Quartets

Besides being a cellist, Thomas likes to compose. He has written pieces for cello solo, cello and piano, many chamber music ensembles, cello with string orchestra (‘Rapsodie’ and ‘Symbiosis’) and cello with symphony orchestra (‘Phoenix’). 

Due to the  COVID regulations, there are fewer seats  available this year, but the festival can be followed via Midvliet TV.

More information at the website of Huygens festival.