©Photo: Irene Kim

Lukáš Vondráček

Piano

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“Pianist Lukas Vondracek is the master of perfectly voiced textures”
(The Straits Times, June 2015)

Following recent debuts with the London Symphony Orchestra, Pittsburgh,Tokyo Metropolitan and Frankfurt Radio symphony orchestras as well as the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Lukáš Vondráček has a season packed with highlights ahead of him. In 2020/21 the indisputable winner of the 2016 International Queen Elisabeth Piano Competition will perform with orchestras such as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Japan Symphony Orchestra, Malaysian Philharmonic, Warsaw Philharmonic, Orchestre Philharmonique de Marseille,Turku Philharmonic and Antwerp Symphony Orchestra. In addition, the Czech pianist is Artist in residence at the Dvořák Festival in Prague and with the Janáček Philharmonic in Ostrava. Important recital dates will take him to the KKL in Lucerne or the Rudolfinum in Prague.

Over the last decade Lukáš Vondráček has travelled the world working with orchestras such as the Philadelphia, Baltimore, Tasmanian and Sydney Symphony orchestras, Philharmonia Orchestra, Oslo Philharmonic and Netherlands Philharmonic orchestras. Recitals have led him to Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie, the Flagey in Brussels, Leipzig’s Gewandhaus, Wiener Konzerthaus, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and to renowned festivals such as Menuhin Festival Gstaad, PianoEspoo in Finland, Prague Spring Festival and Lille Piano Festival.

After finishing his studies at the Academy of Music in Katowice and the Vienna Conservatoire, Lukáš Vondráček obtained an Artist Diploma from Boston’s New England Conservatory under the tutelage of Hung-Kuan Chen, graduating with honours in 2012.

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At the age of four Lukáš Vondráček made his first public appearance. As a fifteen-year-old in 2002 he made his debut with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra and Vladimir Ashkenazy which was followed by a major US tour in 2003. His natural and assured musicality and remarkable technique have long marked him out as a gifted and mature musician. He has achieved worldwide recognition by receiving many international awards including first prizes at the Hilton Head and San Marino International Piano Competitions and Unisa International Piano Competition in Pretoria, South Africa, as well as the Raymond E. Buck Jury Discretionary Award at the 2009 International Van Cliburn Piano Competition.

Lukáš Vondráček worked with conductors including Paavo Järvi, Gianandrea Noseda, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Christopher Warren-Green, Marin Alsop, Christoph Eschenbach, Pietari Inkinen, Vasily Petrenko, Jakub Hrůša, Anu Tali, Xian Zhang, Krzysztof Urbański, Stéphane Denève and Elim Chan.

Lukáš Vondráček - Schubert: Impromptu No. 3 in G flat major, Op. 90 (excerpt)

Lukáš Vondráček - Smetana: Czech Dances - Skocna

Lukáš Vondráček - Bach: Italian Concerto in F major, BWV 971 (excerpt)

“Vondráček’s tendency to play extremely soft, as in the returning theme of the first movement, made everyone sit up, especially when his pianism blended with Chan’s lavish orchestral accompaniment and was opposed to his own impetuous bursts of fast and loud passagework.“

(Bachtrack, February 2020)

“Pianist Lukas Vondracek is the master of perfectly voiced textures”

(The Straits Times, June 2015)

“27-year-old Czech pianist Lukas Vondráček and conductor Anu Tali collaborated on a brilliant reading of Rachmaninoff’s “Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini,” bringing out inner voices and colors that made this work seem reborn. There were ripples of humor, stretches of passion and intense musicality that delineated the kind of music-making generally relegated to the best of chamber performances.”

(Herald-Tribune (Sarasota), November 2013)

“Lukáš Vondráček drew the finest possible lines and added bell-like sounds as soft as butter, allowing the disparate compositional elements to become part of a greater whole. It comes as no surprise that this young musician is recognized as one of the greatest pianistic talents of our times.”

(Stuttgarter Zeitung, April 2012)