Tomáš Kačo

When I was five, my father sat me in front of the old, half-broken piano somebody had given us, for the first time. Thus he became my first teacher. He is not a musician, does not play any instrument and the only thing he knows about the piano is where to find the a tone on the keyboard. Once he had taken my mum´s lipstick and made a little mark with it on that key. This may sound funny, but it was this lipstick mark that helped me understand what was what on the keyboard. Like any child I always wanted to run and play outside rather than sit at the piano and practise. But I knew I had to practise and learn how to play. My siblings were romping about. Until I was fifteen I was playing the piano just to please my father, the ten long years were a torture for me. Then suddenly something changed and I found myself in music. At that time we had a one-bedroom flat, seven people living in the same room, my mother at that time was always pregnant. I had a new sister or brother almost every year. Strong family bonds, a rather strict upbringing and hardship will always affect your personality. And all that I experienced in my childhood, both good and bad, became the driving force behind my pursuits. I grew up under the influence of Roma music. At home we never listened to anything else. I was training my ear on a daily basis. Through listening to the music and practising on the piano. When I was seventeen I became a student at the Janacek Music Conservatory in Ostrava. I fell in love with the music of Frederic Chopin. This love has never left me. My acquitance with other than Roma music awakened my desire to learn more. I studied new things with great interest, I tried to „get under the skin“ of the masters. Learning new pieces by heart was not my objective. I was looking for meaning, for emotions under which the piece had been composed, all this was absolutely key for me. As I had grown up on improvisation, my approach to the given composition was different from my peers. Most of my academy mates had learnt to play fromsheet music, having had rules imposed on them since childhood. I felt absolutely free in music. I have learnt to express myself through my own music, drawing on my own experience and each and every note I play is controlled by me and protected by me. I am currently in first semester of Berklee College of Music. My dream came true. My goal is to create a new music style/direction based on the Rennaisance of Roma music. I would like to find a way of combining classical, jazz and Roma music into a robust musical whole.