Like many Bohemian ensembles, the Pražák Quartet was founded while its members were still students at the Prague Conservatory between 1974 and 1978, and was soon awarded the First Prize in the Evian International Competition (1978) and Prague Spring Festival Prize (1979).

They then embarked on a professional career whilst pursuing their studies at the Prague Academy (AMU) in the chamber music class of Antonín Kohout (Smetana Quartet), and at the University of Cincinatti with Walter Levin (LaSalle Quartet). 

Today the Pražák is recognized as one of the foremost Czech ensembles. Their extended repertoire includes works by composers of the Second Viennese School, such as Zemlinsky, Schönberg, Berg and Webern, for which they are much in demand in Europe and especially in Germany.  They also extensively perform and record the classical repertoire: Haydn, Mozart and Schubert; and like all Czech Ensembles, they are ideal interpreters of Dvořák, Smetana, Suk, Novák, Janáček and Schulhoff, as well as of contemporary composers such as Pascal Dusapin.

The Pražák quartet records exclusively for Praga Digitals. They have released nearly forty CDs for which they have received great critical acclaim and the highest awards in the international press (Diapason, Fono Forum, Klassik Heute, Gramophone, etc).

The Pražák String Quartet appears regularly in the United Kingdom; for the BBC, they gave concerts at the Wigmore Hall (Monday lunch time series), Royal Concert Hall in Nottingham (Beethoven series) and St Luke’s in London (a programme of Czech music as part of “Voice of a Nation”).  The quartet also completed an Around the Country tour organised by the Sheffield-based promoter Music in the Round directed by Peter Cropper.  They performed Janacek for a BBC Radio 3 lunchtime recital at LSO St Luke’s, and appeared at Newbury and Gower Festivals.  In 2009, the quartet will be celebrating the anniversaries of the deaths of both Haydn (1732 – 1809) and Martinů (1890 – 1959), performing their string quartets extensively.

Václav REMEŠ plays a Lorenzo Guadagnigi (1730)
Vlastimil HOLEK plays a Antonio Caressa (1900)
Josef KLUSON plays a Thomas Vilar (1985)
Michal KANKA plays a Giovanni Grancino (1710, State Collection, Prague)
(Succeeded Josef Pražŕk in 1986)

July 2008