CCMS • Ivan Klánský

For many years Ivan Klánský has been one of the best international pianists both as a soloist and in chamber music. He is also a renowned piano teacher. He studied piano at the Prague Conservatory under Valentina Kameníková and at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague under František Rauch. He is a laureate of many prestigious international competitions (Bolzano 1967; Naples 1968; Leipzig 1968; Barcelona 1970; Warsaw 1970; Fort Worth, Texas 1973, etc.). As a sought-after soloist and chamber player he has given more than 4,000 concerts on stages of four continents. Most frequently he tours Germany, Switzerland, England, France and Spain; he regularly performs every year in South America; and appears in the United States, Canada and Japan. In the years 1980–1990 he was a soloist of the Czech Philharmonic. He recorded the complete piano works of Bedřich Smetana for the Danish label Kontrapunkt; his extensive discography includes famous piano works of Romanticism.

For more than a quarter of a century Ivan Klánský has been a member of the first-class chamber ensemble Guarneri Trio Prague, with whom he has recorded three dozen CDs. The ensemble from the very beginning consists of pianist Ivan Klánský, violinist Čeněk Pavlík and cellist Marek Jerie. The Guarneri Trio is regularly invited to international festivals and extensive concert tours around the world.

Ivan Klánský also plays an important role in the organization of musical life in the Czech Republic – he is the president of the Chopin Society, president of the Chopin Festival in Mariánské Lázně (Marienbad) and the chairman of the jury of the International Frederic Chopin Piano Competition at the same town, the chairman of the jury of Prague Junior Note, etc. For three decades he has taught at the Prague Academy of Performing Arts; since 1997 as the head of the Department of Keyboard Instruments. Since 1991 he has also been professor at the Academy of Music in Luzerne, Switzerland. He has led master classes in Dublin, Schaffhausen, London and other cities. His most successful graduates include Helena Suchárová-Weiser, winners of the International Prague Spring Competition Martin Kasík and Ivo Kahánek and many other leading Czech pianists.