Petr Jiříkovský

Petr Jiříkovský (1971), pianist and conductor, is one of the leading representatives of the middle generation of Czech artists. He started his career as a pianist – studying in Prague (with Emil Leichner, Ivan Klánský), in Paris (with Eugen Indjic, Itamar Golan) and in Vienna (chamber music with Michael Schnitzler). Besides developing his activities as a soloist and a chamber music player, since 2008 he has been intensively focusing his professional activities on conducting.

Petr Jiříkovský receives many invitations to conduct chamber and symphonic orchestras in the Czech Republic. He has participated in a number of major festivals and prestigious series’ (with the Talich Philharmonia Prague and the North Czech Philharmonic Orchestra). In October 2012 he performed with the South Bohemian Philharmonic Orchestra as the conductor and pianist in Beethoven’s 2nd Piano concerto.

In 2012, Petr Jiříkovský became the conductor of the South Bohemian Opera in České Budějovice, with his debut piece being the comic opera “Abduction from the Seraglio” by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

His performances as a pianist have earned Petr Jiříkovský international acclaim. Foreign engagements have brought him to the top concert venues in Europe, the US, South America and Japan, with the most important stages being the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Theatre du Chatelet in Paris, Doelen in Rotterdam, the Kennedy Center in Washington, Teatro Alfa in Sao Paulo or Suntory Hall in Tokyo. Petr Jiříkovský has also performed at various music festivals, such as the Salzburger Festspiele, Schleswig-Holstein, Schwetzingen, Sion-Valais, Colmar, Kyoto Autumn and many others.

Petr Jiříkovský has a longstanding musical partnership with the world-class violinist Shlomo Mintz. Their regular collaboration and a tour throughout Argentina and Brazil in 2007 have resulted in repeated invitations for Petr Jiříkovský to perform in these countries. As a further extension to his outstanding musical qualities he led the Piano and Chamber Music Master Classes at the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil, in November 2008.

As a soloist he has played with many orchestras (Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Prague Symphony Orchestra, Prague Philharmonic Orchestra, Talich Philharmonia Prague), under distinguished conductors such as Jiří Bělohlávek, Libor Pešek, James Sedares and Jean-Claude Casadesus. Domestic audiences will recognize Petr Jiříkovský as the soloist from his recitals at the Prague Spring Festival and the prestigious Prague Symphony series “World Piano Music”.

Petr Jiříkovský is also known as a talented chamber musician. Since 1993 he has been working with the violinist Pavel Šafařík and the cellist Jaroslav Matějka in Trio Martinů (www.triomartinu.cz) He has also been the piano partner of the violinist Pavel Šporcl for many years; they have made numerous recordings together, the most notable of them being the collected works of Antonín Dvořák for violin and piano released on the Supraphon label (several CDs from this complete set were awarded Supraphon’s Gold Disc).

Petr Jiříkovský has also become more familiar to listeners through his radio recordings and other outstanding CD titles recorded for various publishers. He was highly acclaimed by Czech and foreign music critics for his recordings (Studio Matouš) of the major piano cycles by Bedřich Smetana, whose work is an important part of the pianist’s key concert repertoire. With his colleague Daniel Wiesner he has made the world premier piano four hands recording of Bedřich Smetana’s My Country, as arranged by the composer himself. In addition, Petr Jiříkovský has performed with Daniel Wiesner in many successful programmes of piano four hands repertoire.