Matouš Michal

I started playing violin when I was four years old. I was led by my father. I have recently been praised by the New York Times as “terrific throughout the program” for my appearance as the concertmaster of the MSM Symphony orchestra in Richard Strauss’ ‘Ein Heldenleben’. I have played under the baton of prominent conductors as James Levine, Kurt Masur, Bernard Haitink, Yuri Temirkanov, Charles Dutoit, Alan Gilbert, Semyon Bychkov, Ivan Fisher and Jaap van Zweden. I am also a very passionate promoter of chamber music and regularly performer in halls such as Alice Tully Hall, Avery Fisher Hall and many others. I have served as a concertmaster of The Verbier Festival Orchestra, The Juilliard Orchestra, The Music Academy of the West Festival Orchestra and Manhattan School of Music Orchestra. I recieved my Bachelor Degree as a fullscholarship student of Glenn Dicterow, the former concertmaster of New York Philharmonic, from The Juilliard School of Music. Now, I am pursuing the Master’s Degree at the Manhattan School of Music in a very prestigious “Orchestra Performance Program”. Also, I was the only violinist who was invited to join the program in 2014. I am a frequent guest of festivals such as Verbier Festival, Music Academy of the West Festival among others. I also collaborate with the leading chamber musicians including Joseph Kalichstein, Peter Salaff, Sylvia Rosenberg, Earl Carlyss, Nicholas Mann, Jerome Lowenthal, Gerald Robbins among others. I won numerous awards as well - the Grand Prize Winner and a Prize for the Best Interpretation of the 20th century piece at the Czech National Competition, EMCY Art for Music Artist of the Year and Edition Barenreiter Prize at the Kocian Violin Competition among others. Also, one of my successes was 2nd place in Dubai International Competition for Young Virtuosos.