Back home

When speaking about nice concerts, during May I was offered to perform a solo recital at the Scandinavian biggest early music festival - Stockholm Early Music Festival. Of course, I accepted the invitation with a pleasure and honour, so I had an opportunity to play the concert in the Cathedral Parish hall on June 9th. The program of the concert was composed solely of baroque compositions, and it was great to play such music in this beautiful hall in the very centre of Stockholm.
Further, I would also like to mention my participation in the Act in Art boot camp in Finland in the beginning of May. This event was truly exceptional mainly for a unique mix of extremely inspiring, interesting and open-minded people from thirty different countries that met there. I must admit that I had a slightly different idea of the form of the whole boot camp before my arrival to Jakobstad where the boot camp took place at. It was actually my very first contact with the Finnish educational system. Instead of just listening and being bombarded with new information, we discussed on individual topics (art as a main job, the values of art in society, etc.) with each other and found the information and solutions ourselves in interesting, inspiring and sometimes really deep conversations. This, as I understood, is one of the main differences between the Czech and the Finnish educational system. Instead of passively absorbing information, students are ‘forced’ to actively reach the information themselves. On top of that, I was impressed by the campus of the Novia University where we spent most of our time during this boot camp. The overall concept of the building was fascinating. Musicians, artists, graphic designers and photographers study all together in one place in amazingly inspiring surroundings there. The facilities of the university were also surprisingly great. Considering the fact that Jakobstad has less than 20,000 inhabitants, the quality of the local equipment was truly amazing. Anyway, to get back to the participants of the boot camp, we were people from three different, yet very intertwined, fields there - musicians, dancers and music producers. We were all from different countries and had different stories behind, but thanks to our common passion, art and desire to make our living of art, we immediately understood each other perfectly and became friends naturally. On the other hand, it was interesting to hear how people deal with the same things differently in Norway, differently in Romania, differently in Kenya and so on. In addition to new inspiration, many clarified things and new impulses, I have also brought a lot of new contacts from this boot camp; to have a good network is a crucial thing, especially in our field.
Afterall, I have decided to return to the Czech Republic. Although I still have several active projects and live contacts in Sweden and want to get back there mainly for concerts occasionally, I still perceive the Czech Republic as my home, and I would like to invest most of my creative activities, time and energy here. In Sweden, I managed to build a decent network, fairly stable jobs and, to a certain extent, a good ‘name’ there. However, due to my focus on activities in Sweden, I was naturally unable to fully focus on performing and working in the Czech Republic while studying in Stockholm. But now it is tremendously motivating to get back to work, update and expand my network here and build everything up basically from scratch again. I believe that many of the concepts that I have observed, learned, and tried myself in Sweden, I will be able to realize at home in the Czech Republic. I also see this as one of the main benefits of studying abroad – to see that some things are done better, some worse, and then try to reflect on it somehow in our home country. And I think that I will have many opportunities to create and bring new things as someone who is going to make a living from creative activities.
Studying and living in Sweden gave me so much. I am so happy that I had the opportunity to study at one of the most prestigious music universities in the world, to meet and collaborate with excellent musicians and people there, and I am grateful for all the knowledge and experiences I got there. Studying at KMH has influenced my career and my life in general a lot.  In fact, the successful graduation of the Royal College of Music in Stockholm is a fulfilled dream that I set out many years ago without knowing if I will ever be able to realize it. All I had at that time was the will to reach that goal. Huge thanks go to my family who has always supported me in what I do. And finally, my big thanks go to The Kellner Family Foundation, which I luckily discovered during the first year of my studies at KMH and which helped me to realize my dream. Without the financial support of the foundation, my "Swedish journey" would be indescribably tougher. THANK YOU and I wish all the other students at least the same amount of luck on their way to what they like, as I had! Have a nice summer!