Ondřej Adámek © Astrid Ackermann
Ondřej Adámek
Ondřej Adámek was born in 1979 in Prague. He has received commissions for orchestral, choir, ensemble, and vocal works, as well as music for instruments and electronics from prestigious ensembles, orchestras and festivals of contemporary music in Europe, such as Simon Rattle and the London Symphony Orchestra with Mezzo-Soprano Magdalena Kožená, Isabelle Faust and Sinfonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunk, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Ensemble Intercontemporain, Klangforum Wien, Lucerne Festival Academy Orchestra, Diotima string quartet, Ensemble Orchestral Contemporain, Agora festival, Donaueschingen festival, Witten festival, Warsaw Automn, Les Musiques festival – Marseille.
Adámek seeks out special playing techniques for classical instruments, creates new original instruments, with his vast knowledge of new possibilities for classical instruments, and obtains a very specific sound colour that, together with a powerful rhythmic and solid formal architecture, creates very personal music with strong dramatic aspect.
Adámek graduated from the composition department of the Academy of Music in Prague in 2004 and from the Conservatoire National Supérieur in Paris in 2007.
Adámek came to Berlin in 2010 as a guest of the DAAD’s Artists-in-Berlin Programme, where he has been living ever since.
His music was awarded the Synthèse Prize (Bourges 2002), Metamorphose (Brussels 2002, 2004), First Prize of Hungarian Radio, the Brandenburg Biennale prize (2006), the Prix Hervé-Dugardin – SACEM (2009), the Grand Prix Tansman (Lodz 2010), the Prix George Enesco 2011, and others. In 2014/15, Adámek was fellow of Académie de France, Villa Medici in Rome.
Ondřej Adámek is also conductor and conducts his opera “Alles klappt” in the festival Biennale Munich and his opera “Seven Stones” in the opera festival in Aix-en-Provence. He conducts the Deutsche Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Ensemble Moderne, Ensemble Musikfabrik, Kammerensemble Neue Musik, Ensemble Orchestral Contemporain, Oslo Sinfonetta, Ensemble 2E2M, Ensemble Prague Modern, Vocal Ensemble Accentus – Aix 21, Chorwerk Ruhr, Ensemble Ilinx, Ensemble of Orchestre National de Lille.
In 2018, Ondřej Adámek founded the vocal ensemble N.E.S.E.V.E.N, for which he also develops his own compositions and interdisciplinary programmes in cooperation with other ensembles. In his work as a conductor and leader of vocal ensembles, Adámek is interested in the authenticity and originality of the voice, as well as questions of movement, gesture and theatricality on stage.
Always interested in new forms of expression and sound colours, Adamek also develops his own installative musical instrument “Airmachine”.
August 2021