Jiří Slavík

Jiří Slavík (born 1986 in Havířov) plays the double bass as his main instrument. When he moved to Rome with his family at the age of fourteen, he attended Massimo Giorgi's double bass class at the Santa Cecilia Conservatoire. Then, thanks to his astonishing talent and extraordinary academic results, he received a scholarship to London's Royal Academy of Music, where he studied classical double bass and jazz composition at the same time. In reality, however, Jiří can virtuoso play anything. Not only for stringed instruments, including violins, but also for wind instruments and keyboards. His knowledge of the technique of individual instruments enables him to compose brilliantly for a variety of ensembles, in genres ranging from contemporary "serious" music to jazz and stage music to echoes of Moravian folklore. Slavík, settled in Prague this summer, is more of a global citizen. In addition to Italy and the UK, he worked in France for many years. Perhaps this is where the variety and openness of Slavík's musical thinking comes from.