Jan Mikušek

Guest of the National Theatre Opera. Born in Valašské Meziříčí. He studied cimbalom and conducting at the conservatory in Brno in Evžen Holiš’s class. In 1991 he became the conductor of the Beseda Choir in Valašské Meziříčí and concurrently second conductor of the Czech Philharmonic Choir Brno. He continued studying conducting at Prague’s Academy of Performing Arts with František Vajnar. He conducted the musicals Hair and Rusalka, and arranged and prepared the rock opera Juno and Avos for the Theatre in Pilsen. Since 2000 he has been the conductor of the chamber ensemble Vox Nymburgensis. During his studies he also began devoting to singing, first with Marcyn B. Sczycińsky, subsequently under the tutelage of Terezie Blumová. He attended master-classes given by Mario van Altena. He has performed so-called old music (Capella Regia, Musica Florea, Ritornello, Societas Incognitorum), collaborated with the flautist Jiří Stivín and Ensemble Damian (Tomáš Hanzlík and Vít Zouhar’s operas). His repertoire includes works by J. S. Bach (St. Matthew Passion, masses), G. F. Händel (Messiah, St. John Passion), oratorios and cantatas by G. Carissimi, G. B. Pergolesi, A. Vivaldi, A. Draghi and J. H. Wiederer. In the male quartet Affetto he has extended his range to encompass contemporary and experimental music too (M. Štědroň, M. Košut, J. Meisl, A. Pärt, etc.). He has already collaborated with the National Theatre on the production of Martin Smolka’s opera Nagano (the role of Dominik Hašek, 2004), Tomáš Hanzlík’s opera Lacrimae Alexandre Magni (the role of Hephaestion, 2007), on the production of the opera-proces Tomorrow There Will Be... (2008) and currently the role of Dargelos - Agathe in Philip Glass’ opera Les Enfants Terribles (2011). Jan Mikušek is the co-founder of the International Cimbalom Festival in Valašské Meziříčí. As an active player of this instrument, he has premiered a number of compositions for cimbalom (Trifolium by Antonín Tučapský, Mazel Tow by Vladimír Wimmer, Psalms by Svatopluk Havelka, Concerto for cimbalom and orchestra by Jan Meisl). Update: June 2011