Mucha Quartet
Juraj Tomka, 1st Violin
Jozef Ostrolucký, 2nd Violin
Veronika Kubešová, Viola
Pavol Mucha, Violoncello
Mucha Quartet was established in 2003 at the Conservatory in Bratislava and it belongs to the prominent chamber ensembles in Slovakia. The first teacher of the quartet was Stanislav Mucha, the father of the cellist Pavol Mucha and the 1st violinist of the Moyzes Quartet, which used to bear the name „Mucha Quartet“ in its student years. They studied chamber music at the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava in the class of Ján Slávik, at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna in the class of Johannes Meissl, and also at the Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofía in Madrid in the class of Günter Pichler.
The ensemble was awarded 2nd prize at the International Bohuslav Martinů Competition in Prague (2010), the 3rd prize at the GIANNI BERGAMO CLASSIC MUSIC AWARD 2012 in Lugano, they are winners of the Josef Windisch Prize 2013 (Vienna). At the international competition Premio Paolo Borciani 2014 they were awarded the 2nd prize and the Prize of the public. They gained the 1st prize at the Antonín Dvořák International Chamber Music Competition 2014 (Prague), as well as the 1st prize at the Leoš Janáček International Competition 2015 (Brno).
Mucha Quartet received important artistic impulses at the International Summer Academy 2012 and 2013 in Reichenau (AT) under the artistic lead of Peter Schuhmayer, Johannes Meissl, Othmar Müller, Hatto Beyerle, Miguel da Silva, Evgenia Epshtein, Jan Talich, Petr Prause, Josef Klusoň, András Keller. They also took part at these prestigious masterclasses – Schwarzenberg (AT) – Günter Pichler; Académie musicale de Villecroze (FR) – Miguel da Silva, Alfred Brendel; McGill Intertnational String Quartet Academy Montreal (Canada) – Gerhard Schulz, Michael Tree, Norman Fischer, Atar Arad.
Mucha Quartet has regular concerts at various music festivals and cultural events in Slovakia and abroad – Bratislava Music Festival, Viva Musica! Festival, Prague Spring, Concentus Moraviae, recital in the Viennese Musikverein, Bordeaux String Quartet Festival, Allegretto Festival Žilina, Sunday Matinée in the Mirbach Palais, Albrechtina – (Un)Known Music, chamber cycle of The Slovak Philharmony, Luxembourg Philharmony, Music Summer Reichenau, Schubertiade Schwarzenberg, the official visit of the English Queen Elisabeth II. to Slovakia in 2008. In 2016 they performed on tours in South Korea and China. In August 2013 they were awarded the Prize of the Mayor of Piešťany for the promotion of Slovak music. They were granted the title Young Artist within the Tatra banka Foundation Art Award for Music in 2016.
Their recordings include their profile CD (Diskant, 2013), Slovak Songs by Béla Bartók in co-operation with Iva Bittová (Pavian Records, 2015), CD Bella-Dvořák (Diskant, 2017), as well as CD Four Fellow Musicians (Pavian Records, 2018).
In 2016-2017 they were the ensemble-in-residence of the Devin Radio. Among their periodic projects we can mention musica_litera (joining classical music and artistic word).
