The Play of Light and Darkness
Melodrama of light, dance and music

Künstler

• Kateřina Málková – organ

  She is the founder of the Opus Organum association, which aims to promote and future restore organs, mainly from the Znojmo organ school. This activity led to the creation of the Silberbauer’s Musical Thaya Region festival, of which she is the director and dramaturge. The aim of the festival is to musically connect the Czech and Austrian border regions. Thanks to this activity, the greatest contribution to the field is the future restoration of valuable instruments by Josef Silberbauer. In December 2021, her first solo CD Silberbauer in Vranov nad Dyjí was released by Arta Music publishing house.

  Kateřina Málková is a promoter of mainly Baroque works, but also contemporary composers. She always tries to find new places with lesser-known instruments and contributes to their promotion to the wider public. She organises a number of concerts both in South Moravia and Lower Austria. In addition to solo concert performance, she also engages in pedagogical activities. She has performed at festivals in Austria, Slovakia, Switzerland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, etc. She collaborates with orchestras such as the Czech National Symphony Orchestra, North Bohemian Philharmonic, Atlantis Orchestra, Collegium magistrorum, Bohuslav Martinů Philharmonic, Sedunum String Orchestra and others. She studied organ at the Brno Conservatory in the class of Petr Kolař, then continued her master’s studies at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague with Jaroslav Tůma. During her studies, she completed a one-year study abroad internship in Lübeck, Germany, with Arvid Gast.

• Petr Hojač – trumpet

  Born in Hodonín. After studying at the local Art School, he continued his artistic studies, first at the Brno Conservatory and then at HAMU in Prague and JAMU in Brno. He also briefly studied at the Hochschule für Musik und darstellende Kunst in Vienna. Since 1999, he has been a member of the Janáček Theatre opera orchestra and the National Theatre orchestra in Prague. Since 2007, he has been a member of the Brno Philharmonic. In 2002-2003, he guested and toured with the European Music Academy orchestra at the 54th International Music Festival in Aix-en-Provence, France. In this year, he participated in two concerts with Estonian organist Ines Maidre.

• Josef Škarka – bass
  ’

  Josef Škarka

  graduated from HAMU in Prague in the class of René Tuček and Miloslav Podskalský. He further deepened his knowledge with Gabriela Beňačková, José Cura and Helena Kaupová.
  He stepped onto the stage during his studies. At the National Theatre in Prague, he studied several roles, primarily from the contemporary repertoire (The Girl of the West, No Man, Red Marie, The Cunning Woman and The Moon), and is a frequent guest at the National Theatre Brno (The Queen of Spades, The Devil and Kate, Greek Passions, Three Fragments from Juliette, Rules of Good Conduct, The Marriage of Figaro, Powder her face). At the National Moravian-Silesian Theatre, Ostrava audiences can see him not only in opera repertoire (Three Wishes, Triptych, The Secret, A Masked Ball, The Trial) but also in musicals Jesus Christ Superstar or Romeo and Juliet or On the Wings of Love. For the Slovak National Theatre in Bratislava, he studied the title role of the opera King Teodor in Venice. For his role in Rules of Good Conduct, he was nominated for a Thalia Award in the broader nomination.

  Josef is grateful to theatres in Opava, České Budějovice, Liberec, Pilsen and Ústí nad Labem for studying a palette of Czech and world opera classics The Cunning Little Vixen, Der Freischütz, La bohème, Eva, Il Trovatore, Rigoletto, The Tales of Hoffmann, Don Giovanni, Così fan tutte, The Barber of Seville and others. He also gained experience on international stages in France and Italy (Nancy, Modena, Piacenza, Reggio Emilia).

  In addition to singing, he writes lyrics and librettos. With a group of friends, he founded the association Hausopera in Brno in 2017.

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• Iva Kružíková – mezzo-soprano

  Born in Brno. She received her first musical education by studying piano. She began to focus on solo singing at the P. Křížkovský Art Gymnasium in Brno, under the tutelage of Irena Vašíčková-Pollini. She continued her vocal studies at the Brno Conservatory. In 2002, she was accepted to the Conservatorio di Santa Cecilia in Rome, where she studied under Professor Rebecca Berg. During her studies, she also participated in a MasterClass with Margareet Honig.

  In 2006, she participated in the performance of Robert Schumann’s "Der Rose Pilgerfahrt" in the roles of Martha and the Queen (Sala Baldini, Rome). In the same year, she was accepted for a one-year study internship at the Faculty of Music of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. Here she studies under Professor Doc. Magdalena Hajóssyová.

  In 2007, she completed her master’s degree, obtaining an academic diploma from the Conservatorio di Santa Cecilia in Rome. The certificate of equivalence of her master’s education was issued by the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague.

  Immediately after her studies, she worked as a piano teacher at the Centro studi musicali in Rome. In 2008, she toured Israel with solo vocal recitals (Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Haifa). In the same year, she also became a member of the Czech Philharmonic Choir Brno (until 2013).

  In recent years, she has collaborated with, for example, Czech Ensemble Baroque, Moravian Chamber Orchestra, Tišnov Chamber Orchestra, Brno Radio Orchestra of Folk Instruments.

  Currently, she is engaged in pedagogical and concert activities. She also works as an Italian language lecturer.

• Jan Razima – dance

  Jan Razima is a choreographer and dancer. He studied contemporary dance at the Duncan Centre Conservatory and choreography at HAMU, where he is currently completing his master’s degree. He completed a short study internship in the USA at the dance department of New York University Tisch School of the Arts, and last year he was awarded the Dean’s Prize of AMU for outstanding academic results and excellent representation of the school.

  As a dancer and choreographer, he has collaborated with many prominent personalities. Repeatedly with choreographer Jiří Bartovanec. He has already created a number of original dance projects and two feature-length productions Fake and Famous and Pobyt. As a choreographer, he has also collaborated with the National Theatre Brno and Tanec Praha.

• Vladimír Burian – lighting design

  Vladimír Burian and the lighting design studio of the Theatre Faculty of JAMU

  Vladimír Burian studied at VŠUP Prague, the studio of conceptual creation of Prof. Matasová. He focuses on stage lighting design primarily for dance and physical theatre. He works with projections and interactive video.

  For the past few years, he has moved to Brno, where he is the head of the lighting design studio at the Theatre Faculty of the Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts.

  He prepares this installation in collaboration with the students of the studio.

• Tomáš Pálka – composer

  After graduating from grammar school, he studied composition at the Brno Conservatory with Pavel Zemek-Novák and then at the Faculty of Music of AMU with Marek Kopelent. He completed his postgraduate studies in composition in the class of Milan Slavický. In 2004, he completed a residency in Paris at the invitation of SACEM and a commission for the chamber ensemble Calliopée. He is a co-founder and member of the Konvergence composers’ association and ensemble (2002), which premieres and performs unknown compositions by young authors from all over the world.

  He also devotes himself to musical theatre, multimedia projects or projects for radio broadcasting, where he seeks connections between music and art in a more general sense.

  From 1997–2002, he worked as a pianist in the National Theatre Orchestra in Brno. As a bass-baritone, he performed from 1998–2001 in the mixed chamber choir Musica Da Camera in Brno under the direction of choirmaster Martin Franz. From 1998–2008, he worked as a violinist in the Musica Figuralis orchestra (Brno, Přerov) under the artistic direction of Marek Čermák, where he focused on the interpretation of Baroque and early Classical music. From 2000–2003, he collaborated externally with the Prague Philharmonic Choir. From 2003–2012, he worked as a teacher of music theory subjects and composition successively at the Biskupská Primary Art School in Prague, the Brno Conservatory and the English College Prague. He collaborated externally as an editor with music publishers Bärenreiter and Billaudot.

  In 2012, he concluded his pedagogical activities to date and works as a composer, musician and therapist in Ruhpolding.

  In his compositions, he focuses on expressing his relationship to spiritual values.

  His musical role models include composers such as Anton von Webern, Morton Feldman, Giacinto Scelsi, György Ligeti, Pavel Zemek-Novák, Olivier Messiaen, Witold Lutosławski, Arvo Pärt or György Kurtág.

  From the perspective of formal structure, he leans towards a monolithic form, the development of musical contrast within a longer musical surface, and the overall interconnectedness of musical blocks.

• Michaela Pálka Plachká – composer

  Michaela Pálka Plachká studied composition at the Faculty of Music of AMU in Prague (2008) with Juraj Filas. She completed a study internship at the Universität für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Vienna with Germán Toro Peréz (2007). She also received a three-month work internship from the French music organisation SACEM in Paris (2009/10). In 2018, she defended her doctoral thesis focusing on Klangkunst and boundary areas of art, in which music or sound structure and other types of art are organically connected.
  Her compositions have been awarded the Gideon Klein Foundation Prize, the Austria Prize for composers, and in the Generace competition. Since 2006, she has been a member of the Konvergence composers’ association.

  She is primarily the author of instrumental music and projects combining multiple artistic disciplines (movement, word, visual objects). Her compositions have been performed on European and American stages. She has collaborated with many musical ensembles and bodies (Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Orchestra BERG, Pilsen Philharmonic, Ostrava Band, Alexander Quartet, Ensemble Calliopée, Adapter Berlin, LUX Wien, Konvergence, etc.).

  She also engages in literary work for children. She is the author of the CD of fairy tales and songs O skřítkovi Bambulínovi (co-author Tomáš Pálka) and the German project for children Bommelin aus Märchenwald. In her compositions, she is inspired by literature and visual arts. However, her most significant inspiration comes from real people, their stories, thoughts, and experiences. Various life paradoxes and contrasts are transformed into musical form, specific to each composition.

  A recent interesting enrichment for her work is also working with people, with energy, perceiving different dimensions of the world and being, and the cyclical nature of life.

• Jiří Lukeš – composer

  Jiří Lukeš studied composition and accordion at the Prague Conservatory. In 2014, he completed his composition studies at HAMU in the class of Ivana Loudová. The focus of this activity is the interpretation of contemporary music and the research of new sound and interpretive possibilities of the accordion. Recently, he has focused on intermedia projects. His compositions have been performed at concerts and festivals in the Czech Republic, Europe, Japan, and China. He is active as a pedagogue at several schools. Since 2015, he has represented the Czech Republic in the Confédération Internationale des Accordéonistes. He is a member of the Konvergence composers’ association.

  www.jirilukes.com

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