Czech Chamber Music Society • Markéta Cukrová

Thanks to her extraordinary versatility and sense of style, the mezzo-soprano Markéta Cukrová is a sought-after performer of vocal music from the Middle Ages to the 20th century. Her long-standing success in early music performance has led to collaboration with renowned ensembles and orchestras (including La Risonanza, Collegium Marianum, Collegium Vocale Gent, Collegium 1704, Orkiestra Historyczna, the Czech Philharmonic and the Flemish Philharmonic), with whom she has made more than 20 recordings. Her album of arias by J. D. Zelenka with the Ensemble Tourbillon and her recording of J. J. Ryba’s Stabat Mater with the L’Armonia Terrena orchestra, which received the 2017 Diapason d’Or, are highly acclaimed by the European professional community.

In addition to her extensive concert activity, Cukrová also devotes herself to theater, both in the Czech Republic and abroad (Händel-Festspiele in Göttingen). In recent years, she has been nominated for the Thalia Award for the role of the Wanderer in L’Amour de loin, the Jantar [Amber] Award for Artists of the Moravian-Silesian Region for the portrayal of Bianca in The Rape of Lucretia, and the Classic Prague Award in the concert performance category.

Cukrová studied singing at the State Conservatory in Bratislava and also took private singing lessons with Marie Urbanová. She graduated from the Faculty of Arts of Charles University in English studies. She is also a music teacher and has translated into Czech the book True Singing – a conversation with the successful singing teacher Margreet Honig about singing technique and teaching.

In 2022, Cukrová appeared in Vladimír Sommer’s Vocal Symphony at the Janáček Festival in Brno, enjoying wide critical acclaim. “Cukrová’s self-assured interpretation can be appreciated especially for the absolute clarity of expression, which she unwaveringly maintained throughout.” (Jiří Čevela, Harmonie)

Miroslav Sekera, winner of the 2002 Johannes Brahms International Competition in Portschach, Austria, had already won prizes at many important competitions in this country and abroad (F. Chopin International Competition in Mariánské Lázně, YAMAHA Scholarship Competition, International Piano Competition in Gaillard, France). In 2016 he won a prize from the “Salon de Virtuosi” music society in New York.

He has two solo CDs to his credit, which have won awards on the website Pizzicato.lu; for Joseph Summer, a contemporary composer from Boston, he has recorded seven more CDs in the USA. He collaborates with Czech Radio and with leading Czech orchestras and festivals, including a solo recital at the Rudolf Firkušný Piano Festival at the Rudolfinum. He makes guest appearances abroad, especially in Japan and the USA. 

He performs regularly with violinist Josef Špaček, mezzo-soprano Dagmar Pecková, and French horn player Radek Baborák.

He began playing piano at age three and graduated from the Prague Conservatoire (Eva Boguniová and Martin Ballý) and the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (Miroslav Langer).