Jan Mikušek

Biography

Born in Valašské Meziříčí, Jan Mikušek studied cimbalom and conducting at the Brno conservatoire 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 the Academy of Music in Prague with František Vajnar. He conducted the musicals Hair and Rusalka, and arranged and prepared the rock opera Juno and Avos for the J. K. Tyl Theatre in Plzeň. 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 early music with many ensembles (Capella Regia Praha, Musica Florea, Ritornello, Societas Incognitorum) and has also collaborated with the flautist Jiří Stivín and Ensemble Damian (Tomáš Hanzlík‘s and Vít Zouhar’s operas). His repertoire includes oratorios, masses and cantatas by J. S. Bach, G. F. Händel, 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 he also created the role of Dargelos – Agathe in Philip Glass’ opera Les Enfants Terribles (2011) and the role of Fate Ranger in Mysliveček's L'Olimpiade (2013). 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).