Tomáš Jamník
Tomáš Jamník, a renowned performer of classical and contemporary music, is also known as an initiator of musical projects. His playing is especially appreciated for his thorough knowledge of the piece being performed, his work with details and his warm musical communication with the audience.
In 2006 he won the Prague Spring International Competition, where he received a number of other special prizes, and was also a finalist and winner of a special prize at the 2011 Pierre Fournier Award in London. As a soloist, he has been a guest soloist with major Czech and international orchestras, including the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, the Cordoba Symphony Orchestra and the Philharmonia Orchestra London. As a chamber musician, he has appeared with Magdalena Kožená, Leif Ove Andsnes, Ivo Kahánek, Josef Špáček, Tobias Feldmann, Jana Boušková, the Pavel Haas Quartet and the Dvořák Trio at Prague’s Rudolfinum, London’s Wigmore Hall and Barbican Hall, Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie, Katowice’s NOSPR, Salzburg’s Mozarteum and Japan’s Kitara Hall and Tokyo Metropolitan Hall.
In addition to the classical repertoire, Tomáš also brings to life lesser-known compositions; in 2019 he performed his own arrangement of Dvořák’s Cello Concerto in A major and Jan Ryant Dřízal’s Narcissus with the Czech Radio Symphony Orchestra. He also performed the Czech premiere of the work „Tales of Hemingway“ by American composer Michael Daugherty. He has a broader interest in contemporary music, premiering works by Czech composers Miroslav Srnka, Michal Nejtek, Slavomir Hořínka, Marko Ivanović, Michal Rataj, Tomáš ‚Floex‘ Dvořák and Ondřej Kukal.
In 2023, Tomáš performed Jan Novák’s Capriccio for Cello and Orchestra with the FOK Orchestra at the Prague Spring Festival, as well as several concerts with Saint-Saëns Cello Concerto with Czech orchestras and the Slovak Radio Orchestra. In September 2023, he premiered his composition Devilish Whimsy, written for him and the Academy of Chamber Music by Jiří Gemrot, at the Dvořák Prague Festival. In the spring of 2024 he will reappear in a chamber programme with Josef Špáček, with whom he has released the critically acclaimed album Paths, dedicated to compositions by Czech composers.
In addition to his career as a cellist, Tomáš is an enthusiastic innovator in the field of classical music. He is the author of the Serious Interest initiative, which promotes the idea of house concerts and which has helped to organize hundreds of concerts to date with the participation of top professionals and enthusiastic amateurs. Since 2015, he has been the artistic director of the Chamber Music Academy, which connects the Czech and German musical environments and provides chamber music education to young talents. In 2019 he became the artistic director of the Shevchik Academy, which draws on the methods of legendary violinist Otakar Shevchik.
Tomas studied cello in Prague with Mirko Škampa, Martin Škampa and Josef Chuchro, and continued his studies in Leipzig with Peter Bruns and at the Universität der Künste in Berlin with Jens Peter Maintz. He completed his studies as a scholarship student at the renowned Karajan Academy of the Berlin Philharmonic. He participated in master classes with Jiří Bárta, Heinrich Schiff, Gustav Rivinius, Truls Mørk, Pieter Wispelwey and Steven Isserlis. In 2023, he completed his six-month stay in the USA on a Fulbright-Masaryk Fellowship, which gave him the opportunity to lecture and perform in New York and other American states. From autumn 2024 he will become a professor at the Janáček Academy of Performing Arts in Brno. Tomáš plays a Lorenzo Storioni instrument from 1784, kindly loaned from the private collection of Mr. Ales Voverka.