Tracing the Music Roots of Middle Europe:
Hungarian Piano Tradition and the Power of Folk Inspiration

Having tackled the basics of score reading at three and taken up the piano at six, Mónika Ruth Vida was admitted to the school for extraordinary young talents at the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music, where Gábor Eckhardt became her tutor. She has also participated in master classes of Lívia Rév in Paris, and is a regular participant in the courses of Zsolt Gárdonyi. Her exceptional talents are marked not only by virtuosity but also her deep engrossment with the music.

A teenage student, she has scored impressive victories in piano competitions, including the international 2012 Chopin, where, although the youngest, she placed second, and the 2013 of Treviso, where she was by far the best. In 2013 she played with the Szolnok Symphony Orchestra in the season-opening concert and, invited to perform with the outstanding (blind) Hungarian pianist Tamás Érdi, she appeared in a concert series promoting talented young musicians at the Budapest Music Centre.

The Bardolino Trio presents classical music in a new context, evoking and exploring its very roots, bringing out its emotional aspects and thus directly involving the listener. The repertory ranges from folk to major works of the so-called “serious“ music, to their own compositions. This year the trio is also to appear in Britain, the Netherlands and Austria.

While still studying the violin at the Prague Academy of Performing Arts, the leader Pavel Fischer founded and directed for twenty years the prestigious Škampa Quartet with which he appeared in major venues all over the world. Also a member of the Hyperion Ensemble of Salzburg, he has been active as teacher (professor at the Royal Northern College, Manchester; Conservatory in Birmingham; Royal College and Royal Academy of Music, London) and composer: next to pieces for the trio, he wrote 3 string quartets, recorded on a CD by Supraphon in 2012; the first (Morava) was premiered in Carnegie Hall, New York.

Having graduated from the Academy of Performing Arts, Prague, Margit Koláčková played in such prestigious ensembles as the Kapralova Quartet, the Rejcha Piano Trio, Virtuosi di Praga and the Talich Chamber Orchestra and appeared in major venues of Europe and beyond. Her teaching activities, also at the private Music Academy of Prague, have been inspired by the work of Carl Orff and focus on developing musical creativity based on the folksong heritage.

Camillo Caller, of Peruvian descent, opted for cello as a child but in the Prague Conservatory majored in percussion study which he supplemented with classes of cajón by Juan Cotita in Lima. His work takes him across genres, from cooperation with pop music stars and groups, both home and abroad, to playing in major orchestras, such as the Czech Philharmonic and the Prague Symphony. A member of the Karlín Music Theatre Orchestra, he also teaches percussion at the Jaroslav Ježek Conservatory in Prague.

rkp