Laterna magika
Robot Radius
The New Stage
Michal Pavlíček
Biography
The composer, guitarist, singer, music producer and lyricist Michal Pavlíček made his name as a leading member of the renowned Czech rock band Pražský výběr. He co-founded Stromboli and Big Heads, for whom he also wrote music. Moreover, he has been a member of BSP and Supergroup, and performed as a soloist or with Monika Načeva.
Pavlíček has written music for 23 theatre productions (Aquabelles, The Cherry Orchard, The Very Blue Bird, etc.) and four musicals (The Clown, Excalibur, The Picture of Dorian Gray and The Lady of the Camellias). He has composed scores for 35 television films and 11 serials, as well as for 16 features, including Odcházení (Leaving), a cinematic adaptation of Václav Havel’s eponymous play, for which he received a nomination for the Czech Lion prize in the music category. He has created music for the Laterna magika productions The Minotaur and Puzzles, and for several ballets (e. g. Strange Joie de Vivre, State Theatre in Košice; The Little Prince, Slovak National Theatre in Bratislava).
Pavlíček has also written scores for foreign shows, including the BBC’s costume drama series The Scarlet Pimpernel (nominated for Best Music at the Birmingham Film Festival), the British TV programme Help! I'm a Teenage Outlaw, and the BBC’s fantasy-adventure drama Merlin (Series IV).
As a composer and performer, he has made more than 70 CDs and DVDs, either solo albums or with Pražský výběr, Stromboli, BSP, Zuzana Michnová, Monika Načeva, Bára Basiková, Kamila Střihavka, Richard Müller, Michael Kocáb and other artists.
Michal Pavlíček has garnered numerous accolades, several gold discs and Anděl awards. In 2016 he was inducted into the Czech Beat Hall of Fame. In 2008 his autobiography, Země vzdálené (Faraway Lands), was published, followed in 2016 by its extended edition. His song Země vzdálená (A Distant Land), to Ivan Hlas’s lyrics, was voted by viewers of the Óčko Star television channel and readers of the iDnes daily the greatest Czech post-Revolution hit.
“Perhaps music jets from somewhere within us, where we harbour our black box, which contains recordings of our sorrows and joys, so at the right time they materialise in tones. Perhaps music is a zonked-out fairy who intoxicates us and to the tranced rhythm of our heart makes us dance into a fan of major-minor touches. Perhaps music is a pillow into which you sink and escape nothingness by a torrent of imagination. Perhaps music is six sweaty strings, soaked with the skin of our calluses. Perhaps music is an imprint of your blue eyes.”
“Getting into a trance is crucial. Sparks must fly between me and the guitar, yet I ever more often meditate when playing. I switch off my brain, start toying with the strings, now tenderly, then wildly. I like simple dialogues, when we can touch each other more easily and exchange thunderbolts.”