Quick Facts
Biography
Václav Luks (born 14 November 1970) is a Czech harpsichordist, cornist, conductor, musicologist and pedagogue, who has been mainly active in the field of the Baroque movement since 1995.
Life
Born in Rakovník, Luks began his musical training at the conservatory of Pilsen in classes of French horn and piano, and after his studies at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, he obtained a horn player position at the Westtschechischen Rundfunk, and from 1989 to 1991 at National Theatre of Prague. In 1992, he resumed his studies at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Jörg-Andreas Bötticher's harpsichord class, and in Jesper Bøje Christensen's basso continuo class and in 1997, he graduated as a soloist. From 1996 to 1999, he taught basso continuo at the Prague Academy and from 2001 to 2003 he was a lecturer at the University of Music and Theatre Leipzig. Since 2013 he has been teaching choral conducting at the Hochschule für Musik Carl Maria von Weber in Dresden. Luks is a member of the jury of several competitions of ancient music, such as the Schmelzer-Wettbewerb Melk.
In 1990, he founded in Prague the Baroque orchestra Collegium 1704, which from 2005 until today includes a professional structure called the "Collegium vocal 1704", created at the same time, and which makes it possible to perform great vocal works such as the Bach Passions.
He has played natural horn at the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin and is one of the guest conductors of La Cetra Barockorchester Basel. He has made CD recordings for labels such as Zig-Zag Territoires, Supraphon, Arta and Pan Classics. His work is particularly oriented towards the works of composers from Bohemia, such as Jan Dismas Zelenka, Antonín Reichenauer, Josef Mysliveček and Georg Anton Benda. He participates as a guest in early music festivals in France such as the Festival de Sablé in Sablé-sur-Sarthe, the Festival de musique de La Chaise-Dieu, the Festival de Sully et du Loiret but also at the Prague Spring International Music Festival or as an artist-in-residence at the Svatováclavského hudebního festivalu in Ostrava. Several times he has been invited at the Salzburg Festival and in 2014, the Collegium 1704 with Luks were artist in residence at the Festival Oude Muziek in Utrecht.