section leader, principal player
1 / 6
Instrument
basoon
In Czech Philharmonic
since April 1996
Also plays in
In Modo Camerale
The winner of the Prague Spring International Competition 1991, he graduated from the Academy of Performing Art in Prague and played as the solo bassoonist in the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra before joining the Czech Philharmonic and becoming the orchestra’s solo bassoonist in 2003.
He has been playing the bassoon since the age of 10 and as a twelve-year-old already won the honourable mention in the Concertino Praga competition with a wind trio under the supervision of his father. In the late 1980s, when still a student, he succeeded in competitions in Munich (Germany), Manchester (UK) and Leszno (Poland). During his studies, he was the solo bassoonist of the International Youth Philharmonic, conducted by Jiří Bělohlávek, and the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra, conducted by Claudio Abbado.
He started his career in the Smetana Theatre Orchestra in Prague. His Czech teachers include Václav Konečný, Jaroslav Řezáč, František Herman, Jiří Seidl and Vilém Horák. He also participated in the basoon masterclass courses Ticino musica in Lugano (Switzerland) with János Meszáros and the Mozarteum Summer School in Salzburg (Austria) with Klaus Thunemann.
Apart from solo concerts, he also records music, such as bassoon concertos by old Czech masters, Jan Dismas Zelenka’s compositions with the Prague Baroque Ensemble and the music by Bohuslav Martinů and some French composers with In Modo Camerale. He sits on juries, leads courses and has been teaching at the Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Art in Brno since 2009.
