Jakub Dvořák

Biography

“I’m living my dream and earning a living at my hobby. Isn’t that beautiful?”

Music filled the daily life of cellist Jakub Dvořák’s family. “For my parents, music represented the ‘last realm of liberty’ under the totalitarian regime—hope for a life of freedom. For me, the choice of becoming a musician was clear. Also, my father owned a beautiful cello, and that was even more support for my decision”, says the musician who began learning to play his instrument at seven years of age. He got his first musical training at the People’s School of the Arts in Chotěboř, where he attracted the attention of the cellist Václav Jírovec and of the distinguished professor Mirko Škampa. That encounter played an important role in shaping his future career because he soon became Škampa’s private pupil in Prague. After graduating from grammar school, he enrolled at the Academy of Performing Arts, where he graduated from the studio of Rudolf Lojda.

Over his career, Jakub Dvořák has played in many different ensembles and orchestras including the Prague Chamber Orchestra, Virtuosi di Praga, the Czech Chamber Orchestra, the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Joseph Trio, Concertino Notturno Praha, Virtuosi di basso, Capella Regia Prague, the Czech Philharmonic Piano Trio, the Amalia Piano Trio, and the quartet Musica Gaudeans, with which he made the final round twice consecutively at an international competition in Osaka, Japan, and gave dozens of successful concerts on stages in this country and in Germany, Switzerland, Slovakia, Greece, and Saudi Arabia. “Every successful concert has brought me joy and always will. It doesn’t matter whether I’m playing in a sold-out hall for hundreds of people or in an intimate setting for a handful of listeners”, he says.

Thanks to his excellent playing and his wealth of artistic experience, he is a sought-after chamber music partner. In 2000, he joined with colleagues in establishing the Czech Philharmonic Quartet, with which he made several CD recordings and appeared in several European countries, Japan, and Israel. In 2016, he and the flautist Lucie Brotbek Prochásková founded the Amalia Ensemble, a chamber music group with variable instrumentation.

He has been a member of the Czech Philharmonic cello section since 1997. “Playing in the Czech Philharmonic has always been and still remains the dream of perhaps every Czech Musician. I’m glad I fulfilled my dream in this regard”, says the cellist. He loves music that reveals the composer’s true craftsmanship. “For me, Gustav Mahler’s symphonies are the real Mount Olympus in that sense”, he adds. He likes to recall a memorable concert with Wynton Marsalis, and he appreciates having collaborated with many conductors, and especially with Simon Rattle, “a humble person with great experience and a friendly attitude towards musicians, who is a servant of the art of music itself”.

He likes gardening in his free time. “I love nature, and I take care of it with pleasure”, he adds.