Jakub Junek

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About me

On graduating from the Prague Conservatory, violinist Jakub Junek embarked on studies at the Moscow State Conservatory of P. I. Tchaikovsky in the class of E. D. Grach and the University of Music and Arts in Vienna with prof. J. Pospíchal. Today he is a proud postgraduate student of one of the most renowned Czech violinists Bohuslav Matoušek at the Music Academy of Performing Arts in Prague.

He has participated in a number of international music masterclasses in the Czech Republic, Austria, Great Britain, the USA and Israel including winning Václav Hudeček's Summer Courses in Luhačovice, taking part in “Pro Corda” International Chamber music courses in Great Britain (Wihan quartet), summer music course ISA in Austria (A. Kouyoumdjian, H. Beyerle, P. Schuhmayer, E. Epstein), interpretation masterclasses “Keshet Eilon” in Israel (S. Mintz, E. D. Grach) and winning a scholarship for the Meadowmount School of Music in the USA three times in a row (Ch. Avsharian). In 2018 he became teaching assistant of Bohuslav Matoušek at his international summer master courses in Zlatá Koruna, Czech Republic. From 2019 Jakub Junek and Bohuslav Matoušek organize their International violin master courses in Žďár nad Sázavou, Czech Republic (www.masterclass-zamekzdar.cz).

Jakub Junek has taken part in many international competitions. Some key accolades include becoming an absolute winner of the International Czech Radio contest “Concertino Praga” in 2006 along with his colleague and friend cellist Ivan Vokáč, picking up 2nd prize at the International Interpretation Competition “Beethoven’s Hradec” that same year, absolute winner of the national Czech Conservatories contest in Teplice, making it to the finals of the International Violin Competition "Violine in Dresden” in Germany (2008) and winning 2nd prize as well as the laureate award at the A. I. Yampolsky International Competition in Moscow (2009), later on becoming laureate of Bohuslav Martinů competition in 2010 as well.

For many years now, Jakub has been performing as a soloist with major Czech orchestras in the Czech Republic as well as abroad. Above all, however, he plays with the Czech National Symphony Orchestra with whom he has performed several famous violin concertos by Sibelius, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev and Mozart under the baton of Libor Pešek, Marcello Rota, Petr Altrichter, Inma Shara and Paul Freeman. He has also completed several solo tours in Great Britain and Spain along with the Czech National Symphony Orchestra. He also regularly collaborates with an excellent Czech pianist Johanna Haniková.

In 2008, Jakub recorded a CD with the CNSO and conductor Jan Chalupecký featuring two famous violin concertos by Dvořák and Sibelius. Lately, there has been a solo CD released under the CNSO sponsoring programme “KALKANT” on which he plays with his colleague pianist Karel Vrtiška. Renowned Czech documentary director Hana Pinkavová has created two documentaries with Jakub for Česká televize (Czech Television). “Do not extinguish, I’m on fire!” in which he performs alongside his friend cellist Ivan Vokáč and “Go for your dream” (2015).
  

"...In short, he is a quite unbelievable talent and his beautiful treatment of the delightful Mendelssohn violin concerto in E Minor, Op. 64 brought the house down.. " 


- Barnstaple review, John Harvey

"...Tchaikovsky's violin concerto was at the time of its birth considered as an unplayable work. The composer dedicated it to Leopold Auer who refused to play it due to extensive technical difficulty of the piece. Tonight's soloist Jakub Junek, native of Prague, at his twenty three years of age was not troubled by that at all and his performance was just breathtaking...wide, sentimental melody, immensely difficult technical passages, even the demanding cadenza, nothing really made any trouble to the young yet outstanding violinist."
"…Finale comes up attaca with the "Trepak", Russian dance heading towards a thunderous finish followed by an enormous response of the audience."

- David Johnson, King's Lynn Festival

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