Jan Mikušek

Jan Mikušek was born in Valašské Meziříčí. He studied playing the dulcimer and conducting at the Brno Conservatory.

In 1991, he became the conductor of the men's choir Beseda in Valašské Meziříčí and at the same time the second conductor of the Czech Philharmonic Choir in Brno. He continued his conducting studies at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. He conducted the musicals Hair and Rusalka, arranged and staged the rock opera Juno and Avos for the J.K. Tyl Theater in Pilsen. Since 2000, he has been the conductor of the chamber choir Vox Nymburgensis. During his studies, he also started singing. He devotes himself to the interpretation of so-called early music (e.g. with the ensembles Capella Regia Praha, Musica Florea, Ritornello, Societas Incognitorum), collaborates with Jiří Stivín and Ensemble Damian (operas by Tomáš Hanzlík and Vít Zouhar). His repertoire includes oratorios, masses and cantatas by J.S. Bach, G.F. Handel, G. Carissimi, G.B. Pergolesi, A. Vivaldi, A. Draghi and J.H. Wiederer.

In the male quartet, Affetto also extends his scope to music contemporary and experimental (Miloš Štědroň, Michal Košut, Jan Meisl, Arvo Pärt). He collaborated with the National Theater on the production of Martin Smolka's opera Nagano (the role of Dominik Hašek, 2004), Tomáš Hanzlík's opera Tears of Alexander the Great (the role of Hephaestion, 2007) and recently especially Soňa Červená in the production Tomorrow will be... (2008). He also staged the double role of Dargelos - Agathe in Philip Glass's opera Les Enfants terribles (2011) and the role of Guardian of Fate in Mysliveček's opera Olimpiade (2013). Jan Mikušek is the co-founder of the International Cimbal Festival in Valašské Meziříčí. As an active player of this instrument, he premiered a number of compositions for dulcimer.