About

During the first and second year of elementary school I took violin and guitar lessons in a local music school. I was not made to, but I also did not do it out of my own interest. I learned absolutely nothing and, for several years, I did not care for music at all. But since I shared a room with my older brother, at the age of about twelve or thirteen I started to take notice of the music he listened to on his reel-to-reel tape deck – The Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel, Donovan, The Beach Boys, the Bee Gees and several records of American country music. I got interested. Apart from that, the sound of guitar in all its forms started to fascinate me, and rest assured putting it that way is no exaggeration. Because of the previous guitar fiasco, though, it took me a year or two before I mustered up the courage to ask my parents for help. I received my first lessons from a colleague of my mother who gave me an old plywood guitar with metal strings. I got acquainted with classical guitar and, more importantly, with early music by my second occasional tutor – my brother’s high school classmate. During my studies at an art-oriented high school Na Pražačce in Prague I had been taking private lessons from a professional guitarist and teacher Karel Rayman for two years. After graduating from high school in 1977 I attended a one-year course at the Language School in Prague. There I passed my state language examination in English and managed to avoid compulsory military service for the first time. In that year, I started to attend music school in Prague’s Petynka taking lessons from Stanislav Juřica, who further strengthened my interest in lute music. In 1978, I was admited to the Pardubice Conservatory where, again, my teacher was Stanislav Juřica. I graduated in 1983. Between 1988 and 1993, while already a guitar teacher at a music school, I served as an interpreter to J. W. Duart and Gordon Crosskey during the International Guitar Festival in Mikulov. In 1995 and 1997, I took part in guitar courses in Penzance, England, and Oatridge, Scotland, being sponsored by the British Council.

Already during my conservatory studies I first attempted to write short guitar compositions and variations on traditional folk tunes. Apart from the renaissance and baroque lute and the whole “early music” period, I was always drawn to the traditional music of the British Isles. It took quite some time though, before I managed to overcome the fear of knowing I am from Central Europe and know Britain only from books. What helped me and gave me the courage to start working on the “Celtic themes”, was to realize how difficult it was for me to come to terms with the rhythmical and harmonic peculiarities of certain aspects of the beautiful Moravian folk music I was trying to make variations on at the time, since I come from Prague (but despite the fact that my father is a native of Brno, the largest Moravian city).

After 1990, I recorded a number of original albums featuring both solo guitar and guitar duets as well as other instrumental groups. My first recording – Celtic Guitar (1990) – received the Award of the Czech Music Fund and, in 1997, a gold disc in Canada.

I performed and recorded songs with my own Celtic Guitar duo, in a duo with actress and chanteuse Hana Frejková and also with singer and harpist Kateřina Doležalová. Presently I devote my time mainly to composing and serving as a dramaturge for the Michal Hromek Consort ensemble.

My various collaborations include records, TV appearances and concerts with Gerald Garcia, Tom Daun, Jean-Jacques Fdida, Martin Mysliveček, Jaroslav Šindler, Jiří Pavlica and many others. I have fond memories of accompanying Zuzana Talpová, Stanislav Oubram and Marek Vašut singing songs of Vladimir Vysotsky for several years before the Velvet Revolution in 1989. I have performed in a number of European countries but also for instance in Algeria or Costa Rica. Apart from composing, performing, publishing my music and working as a occasional publicist I also teach.