Deputy director  Aleš Kaňka

Aleš Kaňka comes from a prominent musical family in Prague. He obtained his piano training at the Prague Conservatory and Master of Arts degree from the Academy of Performing Arts - Music faculty in Prague. In 1982 he was awarded the second prize at the International Smetana Piano Competition (Czech Republic). Kaňka has been holding a teaching post at the Prague Conservatory since 1986, initially as an instrumental coach. Since 1992 till present time he serves at the same school as deputy director. His performing career was focused primarily on chamber music with various ensembles. For many years he has been playing in a piano trio with his two brothers. He also accompanied other instruments,  mostly colleagues and students from the Prague Conservatory. Except the Czech Republic he performed in Germany, France, Italy and Japan. He frequently appeared with Czech baritone P. Matuszek, with whom he has made many recordings and CD´s, especially of Jewish music and 20th century music. 

Currently, his agenda at the Prague conservatory comprises all performing and theatrical activities of students, international relations, and organization of courses for foreign students.

Jury Chairman  Pavel Trojan

Pavel Trojan was born in Domazlice, west Bohemia region. From 1977 to 1982 he studied composition under Ilja Hurník at the Prague Conservatory. That was followed by Jiří Pauer’s class at the Music Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts (HAMU) from 1982 to 1989. His graduation work was the Concert for Piano and Orchestra. Since 1986 he has worked at the Prague Conservatory, first as a teacher of music theory subjects and, since 1991, teaching composition. From 1992 to 2004 he was the Prague Conservatory’s vice-director and since December 2004 its director.  

Pavel Trojan composed his first major pieces while still a student. His Violin Sonata won an honourable mention in the Generation 84 competition; and his Musica per Archi composition won 2nd prize in Generation 86. In 1990 Trojan’s Concert for Violin and Orchestra, featuring solo violinist Jaroslav Sveceny, made it to the semi-final of the Concerto Prize in London, a combined composition and interpretation competition. His Four Waltzes for Piano (1982) was performed at the 1994 Contemporary Music Days festival; a year later his Piano Trio (1995) was performed at the same festival. Trojan’s cycle of studies for the accordion Days (1994) was honoured in the Citta di Castelfidardo competition in Italy in 1995. In 1998 he completed an extensive Missa Solemnis for soloists, choir, organ and orchestra, which is dedicated to Charles University. Astoriana, variations on a theme by Astor Piazzolla from 1998, was first composed for solo accordion. It was later reworked for various instruments and is one of the most widely played of the author’s compositions. His Cantabile a Capriccio for violin and piano was also commissioned by Mozartiana Iuventus in 2000; it has become a repertoire piece and has been interpreted by a number of musicians. A year later Trojan’s work for orchestra Omaggio al Duomo di Trento (Homage to Trento Cathedral) premiered in Trento, Italy. Pavel Trojan’s works also include pieces for children. These are mainly children’s choirs, e.g. Splinters (1999) to words by Jiří Žáček (premiered at Contemporary Music Days 2002) and an opera There Were Five of Us (2000-2002; libretto Marie Kronbergerová) to motifs from the book of the same name by Karel Poláček. The last of these works was first performed at the Prague Spring in May 2003. Trojan’s Capriccio for Brass and Organ (2002) was played at Contemporary Music Days 2003 and his Dancing Quartet (for string quartet) premiered at the Touches of Poetry festival in 2004. 

Pavel Trojan is also the author of a number of compulsory compositions in various performers’ competition. For example, for the senior category of the Citta di Castelfidardo international competition in 2006 he composed a compulsory composition called Capriccio for Accordion and  for the 59th Prague Spring International Music Competition 2007 a composition titled Solo for French Horn. In 2006 he wrote the orchestral Variations on a Theme in Honour of Vaclav Trojan (composed to mark the one hundredth anniversary of the birth of Vaclav Trojan). Trojan’s latest symphonic work is Sinfonia Giocosa, which was written for the Pilsen Philharmonic Orchestra. It was first performed during the Prague premiere festival in 2008. 

Trojan’s works have been released on a number of CDs and more than twenty of his compositions have been recorded by Czech Radio. Trojan’s oeuvre also includes scenic and film music (e.g. for the film Unchaste by director Jiří Krejčík). He is also the author of a publication called Selected Examples of Harmony (2003).

Since 1998 he has been a regular member of the jury judging the Citta di Castelfidardo composers’ competition; he is also a member of the Society of Czech Composers, the association for contemporary music Pritomnost (chairman 2000-2003 and 2005-2006), and the Collegia 2001 and Harmonie composers’ associations.