Jiří Bárta Baroque cello

The concert activities of Jiří Bárta, one of the foremost cellists of his generation, have taken him to most European countries, North & South America, Australia, Japan and Korea as well as to Africa and the Middle East. Jiří Bárta studied in Prague with Josef Chuchro, in Cologne with Boris Pergamenschikow and in Los Angeles with Eleonore Schoenfeld. After winning a number of national competitions, he was awarded the Europäische Förderpreis für Musik in Dresden and the Rostropovich-Hammer Award in Los Angeles. As a concerto soloist or in recitals, he has performed in such venues as Berlin Philharmonic Hall, Carnegie Weill Recital Hall, Los Angeles Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, London Wigmore Hall, Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, Tokyo’s Suntory and Casals Halls, Seoul Arts Center and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, with instrumentalists including Quatuor Ebene, Ilya Gringolts, Chloe Hanslip, Martin Kasík, Piers Lane, Konstantin Lifschitz, Hamish Milne, Vadim Repin, Dmitri Sitkovetski, Josef Suk and Antoine Tamestit, with orchestras such as the Czech Philharmonic, the Berlin Symphony Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and with conductors including Jiří Bělohlávek, Charles Dutoit, Jakub Hrůša, Gianandrea Noseda, Libor Pešek, Gennadi Rozhdestvenski and Maxim Shostakovich.

As a recording artist for the Supraphon label, Jiří Bárta has released Dvořák’s Cello Concerto with the Czech Philharmonic under Jiří Bělohlávek, a live recording commemorating Dvořák’s centenary, which was televised throughout Europe on Arte. His CDs with Kodaly’s Cello works and the concertos of Martinů/Foerster/Novák respectively received Gramophone’s Editor’s Choice award. His other Supraphon recordings include the Bach Cello Suites and Shostakovich Cello Concertos, and he has also recorded two discs for Hyperion including the sonatas of Moscheles, Hummel and Rubinstein. He collaborated with the mezzosoprano Magdalena Kožená on her Deutsche Grammophon Lieder project, for which she received a Gramophone Award. Jiří Bárta was also featured in the Czech TV documentary “Můj pokus o mistrovský opus (Bárta versus the Bach Cello Suites)”, which won the 2015 Prix CIRCOM in Ireland.

An enthusiastic chamber musician, Jiri Bárta co-founded the Kutná Hora Chamber Music Festival, which encompasses the worlds of contemporary and classical music and gained instant recognition as one of the top classical music festivals in the Czech Republic.