I was born in Prague in 1976 and graduated from an electrotechnical school in Prague. In 1994 I started studying the piano at Jaroslav Ježek Conservatory and the Faculty of Electrical Engineering of Czech technical University in Prague. I did not finish the latter. In 1999 I began my teaching career at Jaroslav Ježek Conservatory and a year later I completed my piano studies at the same school. In 2016 I finished my jazz studies with Karel Růžička at the Music and Dance Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. To do so, I had written a thesis on Erwin Schulhoff – the Jewish composer whose music was also influenced by jazz. My graduation concert was based on transformations of the composer´s music. I was counselled by pianist Jiří Slavík, who had influenced me a lot during the five-year studies and who I feel a great gratitude to.
I am currently earning my bread through music as much as possible. Therefore, I play, record, compose and teach while still being taught…Above all, I try to devote myself to my family, which I was neglecting a bit while studying at the music academy.
For sure I´m not a competitive type of person. Around two years after graduating from the Conservatory of Jaroslav Ježek, I attended an improvisational competition on the theme of Gustav Mahler, where I won both classical and jazz parts. In 2006 I managed to go to the semifinal of the international piano competition in Montreaux, Switzerland, which was an incredible experience and challenge...
As for the music itself, I am trying to play and study all that is somehow interesting to me or that I feel as a good thing. The last three hundred years has meant a major shift from horizontal thinking, yet polyphony is the essence of everything. I am more interested in it than in harmony and that is why I study counterpoint as much as possible. Once I used to like romantic musicians who are, in my view, polyphonic a lot – mainly Chopin and Liszt (I graduated from the school playing his Sonata in B minor). In the recent years I have rather been listening to the classical music of the twentieth century. I like Shostakovich, Schnittke and Messiaen above all and many others.
I studied classical music with Jan Vrána. Yet, I took a much bigger technical and sound swing from consultations with Irina Parker, the postgraduate of the Saint Petersburg State Conservatory. Mainly thanks to her, I do not feel any restraints while playing the piano today and therefore my current way of playing is a result of the work with her. As for music interpreters, I am mostly influenced by Sviatoslav Richter, Arturo Benedetti Michelangelli, Glen Gould and Claudio Arrau.
In jazz I took the initial inspiration from Evans and the early years of Jarrett and then went on to thoughtlessly copy Corea, Petrucciani, Camilo and many others. I downloaded Brad Mehldau and Gonzalo Rubalcaba a lot. To be honest, I have not been listening to jazz much recently since I am rather interested in classical and alternative music as well as folk music from all over the world. Whenever I have some spare time now, I try to study this folk music as it is more inspiring to me than most of the modern jazz (I hereby apologize to modern jazzmen :-)). I learned to play jazz with Jiří Růžička, who I am thankful for solid basics to. I was also a lot influenced by Ondrej Krajňak, the graduate of the Jazz Department of Liszt Academy in Budapest, who I took up a few classes with. He directed me towards different ways of thinking and practising – I am grateful to him a lot. My last two teachers were Karel Růžička and Jiří Slavík. They both gave me a lot.
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