Journey from Novy Jicin to Carnegie Hall

Bakala scholar Tomas Kaco gave his first solo concert in Carnegie Hall. Tomas’s story starts in the small Czech city of Novy Jicin. As one of 12 siblings in a Roma family, he started learning to play the piano by himself at the age of five. His father gave him a piano, but he had neither musical education nor knowledge of the skills needed to play it. However, Tomas kept on playing and, after receiving a master’s degree in classical piano from the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, he was awarded a Bakala Scholarship in 2014 and went on to earn a diploma in Contemporary Writing and Production at Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. Tomas combines classical, jazz and gypsy music. His piano recitals are based on improvisation. He says: “I hope one day my music will help make peace in the world and erase color lines.” Reports about the concert are available on the Czech Radio and Czech Televisionwebsites [in Czech only].