concertmaster
Instrument
violin
In Czech Philharmonic
since September 2015
Since very early on, he has excelled in a number of competitions and aged only 14 became a university student at the Institute for Art Studies in Ostrava in the class of respected Professor Zdeněk Gola. He graduated with a Master’s degree in 2007. He won the first prize at the International Violin Competition Beethoven’s Hradec (Czech Republic) in 2002, was named the overall winner of the International Louis Spohr Competition for Young Violinists in Weimar (Germany) in 2004 and won the first and the second prize at the world-renown Young Concert Artist competition, which took place in Leipzig (Germany) and New York in 2008.
As a soloist, he regularly performs with top Czech and foreign orchestras, including the Czech Philharmonic, PKF – Prague Philharmonia, the Prague Symphony Orchestra and the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra or the Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra and Neue Westfalen Philharmonie. He has been the soloist of the leading Chinese Wuhan Philharmonic Orchestra for many years. He recorded his debut CD “Violino Solo” with the Czech label Supraphon in 2014, featuring some of the most demanding pieces for solo violin. Many of his live performances were recorded by the Czech TV, Czech Radio and the German ARD broadcasting company.
As a chamber musician, he has performed with excellent Czech pianists including Martin Kasík, Ivo Kahánek, Ivan Klánský and Miroslav Sekera. In 2011, famous violinist Gidon Kremer invited him to join many world-renown artists and perform at his Kammermusikfest festival in Lockenhaus (Austria). He regularly takes part at famous festivals, such as the Prague Spring, Janacek’s May, Grand festival of China and Choriner Musiksommer. He was a member of the Smetana Trio from 2012 to 2018 and recorded two CDs for Supraphon with this ensemble, winning the prestigious BBC classical music award and Diapason d´Or.
He teaches at the Prague Conservatory and the Ostrava University (Czech Republic) and plays Italian violin made by Joseph Gagliano in 1767.
“Our job is about proving with every concert and every solo that you are worthy of your position. And if possible, to surprise your listeners and your colleagues,” says concertmaster Jiří Vodička.
Concertmaster Jiří Vodička and pianist Martin Kasík play Smetana's Two Duets for violin and piano, published together under the poetic title From the Homeland. Watch the recording of the benefit concert for the hospitals, which took place without an audience on 28 March 2020 in the Dvořák Hall of the Rudolfinum.
Listen to the opening bars of Janáček's orchestral rhapsody Taras Bulba. Starring Jana Brožková, Jiří Vodička and Daniel Mikolášek. Directed by Sir Simon Rattle.
