"Daddy, there's no way I am going to do karate, I want to sing!"

Leadership

Lenka Pištecká (*1960)

• Has devoted herself to music since childhood; then as a member of the Prague Children’s Choir led by Čestmír Stašek.
• Her professional career as a soloist was far from straightforward; she studied singing privately (L. Hanzalíková, National Theatre soloist). Having graduated from secondary school she was employed as a secretary. Following success in an open competition became a member of the Czechoslovak Radio Choir. She gained a wealth of experience under conductors Milan Malý and Pavel Kühn
• Having graduated from the Prague Conservatory (B.Šulcová) she then studied privately with J. Kotouč. Since then she has intensively devoted herself to concert appearances and to performances of oratoria.
• She gained a wealth of experience in singing sacred music as a soloist (since 1984) in the ensemble Cantores Pragenses which is affiliated to St. Jacob’s Church. She has also appeared regularly with the ensembles Camerata Nova and Collegium Flauto Dolce.
• She has sung in a number of international performances of Handel’s Oratoria Messiah and Judas Macabea, Bach’s St. John Passion and Christmas Oratorio, Mozart’s Requiem and Dvořák’s Stabat Mater both in Bohemia and abroad.
• For many years she has been teaching; she has held the position of vocal advisor to church choirs in Prague and elsewhere.
• In addition to her own private classes in Prague (since 1994) she also spent several years teaching vocalists at the Volkshochschule Furt im Wald in Germany.
• 2002-5 she was vocal advisor to the ensemble Pueri gaudentes.
• As a teacher she devotes her attention both to beginners and to master skills and has successfully employed the method of vocal relaxation. This activity came to fruition in an international seminar for youth entitled Sing, Dance and Paint from your Heart (Třeboň 2005), with EU support. (www.singtoopenheart.info)
• Since 2000 has regularly been attending the Summer School in Valtice (www.early-music.cz) as a lecturer.

Mgr. Martin Rudovský (*1981)

• Came into closer contact with music at the Arts Elementary School specialising in music education where the enthusiastic teacher Pavel Jurkovič made a deep impression on him.
• Following his attendance at the Prague Nad Alejí Grammar School he went on to study at the Teachers´ Training Faculty of Charles University reading Czech language and literature and music.
• In 2004 he also began to study musicology at the Philosophical Faculty of Charles University.
• For many years (1991 – 2004) he was a member of the boys’ choir Pueri gaudentes with whom he experienced many foreign tours, e.g. twice in Japan, for which he prepared several years in succession the music performances at the summer school. He now sings in the world-famous Kühn Mixed Choir and the Czech National Choir.
• He has at all times endeavoured to be an all-rounder, so that in addition to music he also devotes his time to writing (success in the Václav Hrabě poetry competition in Hořovice and the Vladimír Vokolek literary prize in Děčín, VOX journal), combining music and literature (cooperated with the Literula Society in 2005 in presenting Vladimír Holan poetry recitals in the Jindřich Tower)
• Begun to study czech language and musical education in Paedagogic faculty of Charles University in Prague. He completed his own education in the year 2007
• In the past and to this day he has gone in for competitive sports: skiing, football, baseball, ricoshet (similar to squash), in which he holds a trainer’s licence class IV, and seafaring yachting.