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The Czech conductor, harpsichordist and French horn player, Václav Luks, studied at the Conservatory in Plzeň and at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. He fully developed his passion for early music while studying at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Switzerland, studying keyboard performance in the studios of J.A. Bötticher and J.B. Christensen. Among his activities there was the co-founding of the wind octet Amphion, and he played principal horn at the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin.
After returning to the Czech Republic, in 2005 Václav Luks transformed the ensemble Collegium 1704 into a full-time Baroque orchestra, and he founded Collegium Vocale 1704. He has earned renown in the world of early music not only as an outstanding player of orchestral and chamber music on the harpsichord and French horn, but also foremost as an exceptionally conductor gifted with unerring intuition and a feel for the interpretation of the works of such old masters as Jan Dismas Zelenka, J.S. Bach and George Frideric Handel.
As a soloist or member of various chamber ensembles, Václav Luks has appeared on many significant stages in Europe as well as overseas. He is regularly invited to cooperate with the leading European orchestras focusing on interpretation of the historical music, such as Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, La Cetra Barockorchester Basel, and co-operates with radio companies and music publishers (Zig-Zag Territoires, Supraphon, Pan Classics).
Apart from concerts, Václav Luks does intensively the research of music historical sources of the Czech Republic, Austria and Germany and studies the sources of the play of basso continuo with the Baroque keyboard instruments. He taught at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (1996-1999), at the University of Music and Theatre F. Mendelssohn-Bartholdy in Leipzig (2001-2003) and at the moment he cooperates with the Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Brno. |
