Topic: Music (104 records)

Petr Wajsar

Composer, musician and songwriter. An “orthodox rocker” and a follower of Leoš Janáček with a classical music education. His work is on the border between several music genres.

Bohdan Warchal

27 January 1930, Orlová – 30 December 2000, Bratislava, Slovakia

Bohdan Warchal was born in Orlová. His father died when he was six. He played the violin from the age of twelve. He studied at the Brno Conservatory, and he also studied the violin at the Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Brno (JAMU). Between 1955 and 1957, he was the first violin of the Brno Radio Orchestra of Folk Instruments. In 1957, he became the concert master of the Slovak Philharmonic in Bratislava. In 1960, he founded the Slovak Chamber Orchestra and became its artistic director. The ensemble, also known as “Warchalovci”, became famous primarily for interpreting Baroque music. The ensemble soon established itself as the best Slovak chamber orchestra and represented Slovak music all over the world for 40 years. “Warchalovci” also performed at numerous music festivals (Strasbourg, Salzburg, Montreux-Vevey, Budapest, Prague, etc.) and made many recordings for record companies, the Czechoslovak Radio and Czechoslovak Television. In the 1990s, Bohdan Warchal also collaborated with the Prague chamber orchestra and taught at the Bratislava Conservatory, at the Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Brno and at the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava. Warchal’s son Bohdan Warchal Sr. is also a violinist, following in his father’s footsteps.

Bohdan Warchal significantly contributed to the popularisation of Czechoslovak and Slovak music culture abroad. He was famous primarily as an interpreter of Baroque and Classical music. He was also a distinguished solo violinist. An international competition in playing bow string instruments, organised in Dolný Kubín, Slovakia, was named after him. The minor planet no. 28019 was also named after him.

Hana Zagorová

Exceptionally popular Czech singer with a unique voice and a special vocal expression. Her greatest hits include Will-O'-The-Wisp Julie (Bludička Julie), I Am Taking Off (Já se vznáším), Paint Pictures Again (Maluj zase obrázky) and songs with Petr Rezek and Stanislav Hložek and Petr Kotvald.

Jan Dismas Zelenka

Composer, bass player, chapel master, one of the most distinguished representatives of High Baroque, with original harmonic and counterpoint ability. Zelenka was admired by his contemporaries, especially by Johann Sebastian Bach and Georg Philipp Telemann.