Biography

TOMÁŠ VÍŠEK - Piano

Tomáš Víšek (1957 ) started to play the piano at eight years of age at the musical school under professor Pavel Svoboda. During the years of 1972-1976 studied at the Prague Conservatory under professor Valentina Kameníková and then later under professor Zdeněk Kožina. During the years of 1976-1984 studied at AMU (Academy of Arts) in Prague at first under professor Josef Páleníček and then under professor Zdeněk Jílek with whom he continued post-graduate studies in the years of 1990-1993. In 2017, he obtained the Ph.D. title at the Pedagogical faculty of the Charles University in Prague (dissertation "Attraction and Problems of the Antonín Dvořák´s Piano Works").

During his studies he became a many-time laureate in domestic competitions (Ústí nad Labem, Hradec Králové, Mariánské Lázně). In international events acquired awards in Chopin competition in Warsaw, 1975 (Janina Nawrocka special prize), Smetana competition in Hradec Králové, 1978 (2nd prize plus an award for Smetana interpretation). During the nineties this success was followed by the Second Prize in the "Vienna International Music Competition" in Vienna (1992), Second Prize plus Bach-Award in Sicilian Ragusa (1994), and in 1995 he won the Fifth Prize in the Concours Milosz Magin in Paris. In 2013 he won 1st Prize+CMF Prix at the "Concours Musical de France" in Paris, in 2015 he obtained the 1st Prize at the competition "Music Without Limits" in Druskininkai (Lithuania) and the 1st prize at the video-competition "Grand Prize Virtuoso". In 2016, and in 2023 again, he won the 1st Prize at the "International Master Competition for Music Teachers" in Warsaw, in 2021 the 1st Prize at the video-competition "Golden Classical Music Awards" (with the performance at the Carnegie Hall) and in 2022 the 1st Prize at the video-competition "Grand Prize Virtuoso" (with the performance at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam).

Performed in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Japan, USA, Egypt, Hungary, Russia, Bulgaria, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Italy, Switzerland, Finland, United Kingdom, Slovenia and Austria (he repeatedly gave performances in the Vienna Musikverein, as soloist in the Grieg Concerto). Radio France arranged a separate recital for him, and he also performed in Polish Radio and Television. Recorded for radio, television (Czech TV cycle „Top of Classics“) and on CD records (a.o. successful series of the E. Schulhoff' s pieces, recordings on historic "author's" pianos of J.Suk, J.Ježek and Z.Fibich, revelatory recordings of the works by K.Bendl, J.Křička, A.Hába, M.Kocáb etc., CD "Dvořák Unreleased" with unknown pieces by A.Dvořák or the prepared CD "Franz Liszt and Czech Music"). His piano recital in international festival Prague Spring in May 1997 was highly responded by the best Czech critics (as well as his performances here in 2002, 2003, 2006 and 2014), several times he performed Gershwin‘s Rhapsody in Blue in the sold-out Dvořák Hall in Prague Rudolfinum. In 2017, he awoke an enthusiasm at the audience of the R. Firkušný Piano Festival.

He constantly enriches his wide-ranging repertoire by seeking new impetus which enables him to design programmes as from the famous works of world repertoire as from unjustly overlooked composers and compositions always with great response of public (for example – his recital at the festival Musica Iudaica 1997 or the concert project Classic Piano Joke(r)s in 1999).

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