Jakub Sládek piano

Twenty-six-year-old pianist Jakub Sládek, native to Brno, caught attention of his extraordinary talent already at the age of ten, especially at the Amadeus Piano Competition. At the age of twelve he performed with the Brno Philharmonic for the first time.

After graduating from the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague under Prof. František Malý, he continues studying in the prestigious postgraduate Artist Diploma programme at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London under Professor Ronan O'Hora and Professor Noriko Ogawa.

Jakub Sládek is a laureate of a number of national and international competitions, winning for example the international piano competition Virtuosi per Musica di Pianoforte (absolute winner), AMADEUS, Prague Junior Note. He received the 3rd prize at the international competition “A Step towards mastery“ competition in St. Petersburg and was one of the prize winners at the International Piano Competition in Ettlingen, Germany. At the International Leoš Janáček Competition he got the 3rd prize and the prize for the best interpretation of Janáček's composition. He was awarded the 3rd prize at the International Piano Competition in Marbella, Spain. He was a finalist at the Campillos competition, where he also won the audience prize. In 2020 he won the Yamaha Foundation Prize.

Jakub has given concerts in many European countries, such as Belgium (Ghent), Slovakia (Allegretto Žilina), Germany (Hof, Berlin), Austria (Vienna), Poland (Poznań), Hungary (Budapest), Slovenia (Jesenice), France (Lyon), Spain (Marbella, Campillos, Lleida, Barcelona), Italy (Eppan), Norway (Bergen) and Great Britain (London, Marlow).  He has performed several times with the Young Brno Symphony (2008, 2011, 2013), Bohuslav Martinů Philharmonic (2012), PKF - Prague Philharmonia (2021), Moravian Philharmonic Olomouc (2022) and Brno Philharmonic (2009, 2011, 2015, 2018, 2019). He is actively engaged in chamber music and since 2019 has been a scholarship holder of the Academy of Chamber Music.

 He is enthusiastic about discovering and presenting the piano works of the unjustly forgotten late 20th century Czech emigré composer Jan Novák. Jakub Sládek is working with the Toccata Classics music label in London on a multi-CD recording of Novák's complete solo piano works over the next couple of years.

He has attended several masterclasses, for example with Imogen Cooper, Christian Blackshaw, Cristina Ortiz and Andrea Bonatta. He has also studied with professors Avedis Kouyoumdjian, Viktoria Švihlíková, Martin Kasík, Kirill Gerstein, Naum Grubert, Marcel Baudet, Grigory Gruzman, Yury Shadrin and Lukáš Vondráček.

He is one of the artists of the London Talent Unlimited Trust. He is immensely grateful for the support of the Jan Hus Foundation, The Kathleen Trust, the Czech Music Trust Fund, The Drake Calleja Trust, Help Musicians and the Ministry of Culture of Czech Republic.