Biography

  • Founder & Leader Collegium 1704 & Collegium Vocale 1704

As founder and leader of the Prague baroque orchestra Collegium 1704 and the vocal ensemble Collegium Vocale 1704, Václav Luks established himself as one of the leading conductors in the field of Historically Informed Practice. With both ensembles he regularly performs at the Salzburg Festival, Lucerne Festival, Festival d'Aix-en-Provence, Chopin Festival Warsaw, Berlin Philharmonie, Elbphilharmonie, Wigmore Hall, Theater an der Wien, Vienna Konzerthaus, Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, and has appeared as artist-in-residence at the renowned festivals Oude Muziek in Utrecht and Bachfest Leipzig. Their recordings have been awarded numerous prizes such as the Diapason d'Or and the German Record Critics' Award. In May 2021, Luks and the Collegium 1704 performed Smetana’s „My Country“ on period instruments from the composer’s era for the opening of Prague Spring.

Václav Luks also increasingly works with modern orchestras and other baroque ensembles. In the 2022/2023 season he will make his debuts with the SWR Symphonieorchester (Schwetzinger SWR Festspiele), hr-Sinfonieorchester, Kölner Kammerorchester and Norwegian Radio Orchestra, as well as returning to the Orchestre National de France, Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo, Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and Kammerakademie Potsdam (as Artist in Residence). He has also worked with the Mozarteumorchester Salzburg, Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, and the Handel and Haydn Society, Boston, among others.

Václav Luks received his musical education at the Conservatory in Pilsen and at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (horn and harpsichord) as well as at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, where he specialized in historical keyboard instruments and historical performance practice with Jörg-Andreas Bötticher and Jesper Bøje Christensen. During his studies in Basel and in the following years, he already performed as a horn soloist of the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin throughout Europe as well as in the USA, Mexico and Japan.

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