Helena Skopová

She has been playing the violin since the age of four, studied at the Prague Conservatory with Professor Ludmila Štětinová and graduated from the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague with Jindřich Pazdera, also studying chamber music with Milan Škampa. Within the Erasmus programme, she studied at Universität Mozarteum Salzburg with Paul Roczek.

She has attended masterclass courses with Bohuslav Matoušek, Jan Talich, Pavel Šporcl, Jindřich Pazdera, Hagai Shaham (International Summer Academy Semmering), Zakhar Bron and Sylvia Marcovici (Academia de Santander). She also performed with members of the Berlin Philharmonic during one of the masterclasses.

In 2003, she won the 1^st prize at Concerto Bohemia and in 2006, she received the 2^nd prize at the Bohuslav Martinů competition, thanks to which she later recorded violin sonatas by Francis Poulenc and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart for the Czech Radio. She went on tour with the European Union Youth Orchestra and conductors Herbert Blomstedt, Vladimir Ashkenazy and Sir Colin Davis, has cooperated with the Talich Chamber Orchestra, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra and Orchestra Teatro Alla Scala Milan.

She loves opera music, mainly Giuseppe Verdi, Giacomo Puccini and Richard Wagner.