KOZÁK M. PIANO RECITAL (HAYDN J., FRANCK C., CHOPIN F., RACHMANINOV S., SKOUMAL A.)

Joseph Haydn - Sonata for Piano in E-flat major

César Franck - Prélude, Choral et Fugue

Fryderyk Chopin - Andante spianato et grande polonaise brillante in E-flat major

Fryderyk Chopin - Four Mazurkas

Fryderyk Chopin - Scherzo in C Minor

Sergei Rachmaninov - Etude - Tableaux in C-sharp Minor

Adam Skoumal - The Jongleur for Piano

Marek Kozák - piano

Pianist Marek Kozák (1993) studies the piano under the tuition of professor Ivan Klánský at the Music and Dance Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. Since his early years Marek has showed an extraordinary talent for music; he has succeeded in many prestigious competitions and applied his talents as an organist and a composer as well. At the age of four, he received his first piano lessons at the Elementary School of Music and Arts in Brušperk and Frýdek-Místek. When he was fifteen he continued his piano studies in Monika Tugendliebová´s class and his organ studies in Martina Zelová´s class at the Janáček Conservatory and at the Ostrava Music High School respectively. In February 2018 he won the European Piano Competition in Bremen and also received both the Audience Prize and a Special Award for his interpretation of a contemporary piece. He became a semi-finalist in the prestigious Chopin Competition in Warsaw, and in 2016 he came second in the Prague Spring Competition, where he also received an award for his performance of a contemporary composition “The Juggler” by Adam Skoumal. In 2008, fifteen-year-old Marek won the first prize at the Petr Eben International Organ Competition in Opava together with a Special Prize for organ improvisation. As a high school student he won the Pardubice Competition of Conservatories, gained a special award for his interpretation of a Beethoven composition in the Beethoven´s Hradec International Competition, and became an overall winner of the Brno Piano Competition, where he also gained a prize for interpretation of Franz Liszt.

Among other Marek´s significant achievements, let us mention the first prize at the Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition in Mariánské Lázně in 2013, the third prize at the Chopin Competition in Darmstadt, and the first prize at the Smetana International Piano Competition in Pilsen in 2014. The Czech Music Fund has added Marek to the List of Young Musicians since the 2013/2014 season. He has performed with major Czech orchestras: the Ostrava Janáček Philharmonic, the Olomouc Moravian Philharmonic, the Brno Philharmonic, the Chamber Philharmonic of Pardubice, the Prague Symphony Orchestra, the Prague Chamber Philharmonic, the Hradec Králové Philharmonic, the Plzeň Philharmonic, the Zlín Bohuslav Martinů Philharmonic and others. As a soloist he performs regularly both in the Czech Republic and abroad.