Autumn at KMH (not only) in the sign of tango

After a very productive summer that I really enjoyed, I am reporting once again from Stockholm. At the beginning, I would like to briefly follow up on my last post, in which I mentioned that I want to make several new recordings during the summer holidays in the Czech Republic. So I spent a lot of time by creative work, and at the end of August I released two brand new solo albums so I could get back to KMH with some satisfaction and the feeling of productively spent holiday.

Since the beginning of this academic year, only three months have elapsed, but every day here is so fulfilling and full of new incentives that there is definitely a lot to write about. This year, we got several new courses with very interesting teachers, most of them are active players at the highest level, from which a huge amount of inspiration can be drawn. But playing my instrument and doing concerts are still the most exciting activities naturally. Right at the beginning of September, I started working again with my colleague Johannes Rydén. We started studying other pieces and enlarging our program based on Tango Nuevo genre, especially on the music of Astoria Piazzolla, which works really well in the combination of cello and accordion. It was the second November weekend when we had a chance to successfully present a significant part of our program at the Accordion Festival in Stockholm. I was very happy that there was a great audience and a full house at both concerts where I performed both in the duo with cello and in the accordion trio along with my two classmates. During this festival I also met some interesting people that I could start to collaborate with and make new projects in the future, but I will not prejudge.

I am also glad to say that Johannes and I, as Duo Rydén & Řehák, will be performing at other concerts in Stockholm over the upcoming months. I will certainly inform you about the most interesting ones in my next posts.

When mentioning Tango Nuevo, I have recently founded a sextet ‘TangoLoca’ composed of the accordion and five strings. With this brand new project we plan to play tango and try to get as many concert opportunities as possible and introduce this music to the Swedish audiences. This is my first attempt to organize such a big group. Working with five other people will be a completely different thing compared to my current duo or trio projects. But I am looking forward to this work because such a sextet, when it comes to the sound, is something entirely different than a duo.

To get back one last time to my collaboration with the cello, Johannes and I currently rehearse intensively for an audition to be held by the end of November. At this audition we will compete for playing concerts and musical performances for schools in Sweden. Our project, in which we present musical attributes and traditions of various countries through music, was selected for the final audition, where among other candidates we are to introduce our program to a jury composed of the most important Swedish musicians, producers and teachers.

These three months at KMH brought me also a lot of other experiences and concerts, such as a big concert with an orchestra of the Stockholm Accordion Club where I had an opportunity to perform solo, or playing live on Swedish radio for example. So, there is still something going on around and I look forward to another musical adventures on KMH.

Regarding my musical activities in the Czech Republic, besides the traditional Christmas concerts that I will be playing in December, I look forward to another great new cooperation. Together with one of the best Czech clarinettists and Prague Spring laureate Anna Paulová, I'm preparing a brand new musical program that we will introduce at the concerts in Prague after the New Year. I am very happy for this collaboration because the combination of accordion and clarinet is still lacking on the Czech musical scene. It means that this Christmas holidays will be full of music and rehearsing for the upcoming concerts, and I am already looking forward to that!

Finally, I would like to express once again my great thanks to the The Kellner Family Foundation for supporting my studies in this academic year. Without this support, I would probably not have been able to fully focus on what I like the most, and my way would have been a lot more complicated. THANK YOU!

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