Biography

Martin Kasík – winner of one of the world’s most prestigious competitions, the New York Young Concert Artists Competition 1999 – has been playing the piano since the age of 4. He studied at the Ostrava Conservatoire under Monika Tugendliebová and is now Ivan Klánský’s pupil at the Prague Music Academy. He has taken part in a number of piano courses both at home and abroad and has won many competitions. He has received the Prix Davidoff 2000 for the best Czech classical player under 28 years of age and the Harmonie Prize for the most successful young artist of 2002.

Concerts and recordings

He has appeared at a number of prestigious European venues, including the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, De doelen Rotterdam, Helsinki inlandia Hall, Auditorio di Barcelona and others, as well as American ones (Alice Tully Hall New York, Kennedy Center Washington DC etc.), Japanese (Tokyo Suntory Hall), and Singaporean (Singapore Victoria Concert Hall). He has been included in the concert series marking the 40 years’ anniversary of the Young Concert Artists, on February 15 2002 took part in the prestigious concert series at the Metropolitan Museum in New York and in November 2002 debuted with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Czech Philharmonic Orchestra. This was followed by three appearences with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra its tour of Japan (Tokyo Suntory Hall etc.). In May 2003 he appeared for the first time at the Theatre du Chatelet in Paris and in November 2003 at the Tonhalle Zürich.

During the 2004/2005 season he is to tour with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra in Japan, and appear in the USA, Germany, at the Fryderik Chopin International Festival in Mallorca and elsewhere.

Martin Kasík has made several recordings for the Czech, German, Swedish and Missouri Radios and Czech Television, and has so far made four CDs fo the Arcodiva label.