Fri 9/1 20:00
Hana Blažíková / Barbora Kabátková / Romanovská Tichý Hrubý & Kugel

Internationally renowned sopranos Hana Blažíková and Barbora Kabátková in a joint acoustic concert with German drummer Klaus Kugel and the Prague-based improvising trio Romanovská Tichý Hrubý.

The trio Romanovská Tichý Hrubý works mainly with free improvisation, though each musician — and each instrument — comes from a very different musical background. Anna Romanovská has a classical education and is strongly influenced by contemporary music, which is where she mostly lives as a performer. The Japanese thirteen-string zither known as the koto, which she plays, brings an oriental colour to the overall sound. Petr Tichý, whose musical foundation comes from studying jazz double bass at the Jaroslav Ježek Conservatory and the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, approaches music as a multi-genre space and openly draws from his roots in folk and traditional music. Clarinetist Michal Hrubý, with his punk-folk musical base enriched by an unusual range of knowledge across styles, adds an essential element of unpredictability. Expanded with the internationally renowned sopranos and harpistsHana Blažíková and Barbora Kabátková (their ensemble Cappella Mariana won the 2025 Anděl Award in the classical category for the album Pilgrimage) and German percussionist Klaus Kugel, the group presents the culmination of its work to date.

In this unusual instrumental line-up they develop a concept that blends early music, folk influences, and free improvisation. Within the musical flow, the two clear sopranos interweave with the sounds of renaissance harps — often prepared — with the Japanese thirteen-string koto, with bowed violin and double bass, with winds, and with a wide range of Kugel’s percussion instruments. The ensemble released the album Je to zahrada, která má jméno in November 2025.

Anna Romanovská studied violin at the Prague Conservatory. Since her student years she has been continuously devoted to the interpretation of contemporary music. She is a member of the Berg Orchestra and has been collaborating for six years with Petr Kotík on the projects Ostrava New Orchestra and New Opera Days Ostrava. Thanks to the production Schwarz auf Weiss by the German composer Heiner Goebbels, presented by the Berg Orchestra at Strings of Autumn in 2009, Anna began learning to play the Japanese instrument koto. Today she mainly uses the koto in free improvisation with the trio Romanovská Tichý Hrubý. Among her recent projects is a collaboration with visual artist and performer Petr Nikl. She is a member of MAOMAH, the group led by double bassist Klára Pudláková. With the artistic collective Ostružina she contributed to the creation of Néenyi, a sensory performance for toddlers, parents, grandparents, and non-parents alike.

Petr Tichý is a double bassist and a student of Jaromír Honzák, Miroslav Vitouš and Jiří Slavík at the jazz department of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague and at the Jaroslav Ježek Conservatory. His key projects include the duo HLASkontraBAS with singer Ridina Ahmedová and the band NTS with Michal Nejtek and Štěpán Smetáček. He has worked with Floex, the Berg Orchestra, Divadlo Continuo, Pavol Hammel, Mirek Kemel and Sylvie Krobová. He also plays with František Skála and Petr Nikl in the group Třaskavá směs, and with Jana Vébrová and Vladimír Václavek in the trio Číro na důchod.

Michal Hrubý plays clarinets, flutes, and folk pipes. After years in ethno-rock bands Neočekávaný dýchánek and Kapitán Kajman, he has focused mainly on free improvisation since 2009. He currently plays in several groups (Kvadrata Supro, Fahrzavö, the duo Drtina Hrubý). He has appeared as a guest with the Berg Orchestra. He served as dramaturg of the festival Dobršská brána and contributes to the programme of the Cultural Summer at Dobrohoř Castle. He has collaborated with Gary Lucas, Mikoláš Chadima, Vratislav Brabenec and Garth Knox, among others.

Klaus Kugel is a German drummer and percussionist and one of the sought-after players on the European and international free jazz and improvisation scene. He appears on recordings by musicians such as Joe McPhee, Ken Vandermark, Theo Jörgensmann, John Dikeman, Vyacheslav Ganelin, Charles Gayle, Steve Swell and Mark Tokar. Alongside the traditional drum kit he uses percussion instruments from various parts of the world, as well as different percussive objects and instruments of his own making.

Soprano Hana Blažíková is an exceptional figure on both the Czech and international early-music scene. She focuses mainly on baroque, renaissance, and medieval repertoire and performs as a soloist with many leading ensembles, including Collegium Vocale Gent, Gli Angeli Genève, Bach Collegium Japan, Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, Ensemble Pygmalion, La Capella Reial de Catalunya, Collegium Marianum, Tiburtina Ensemble, and Collegium 1704. She performs at major festivals worldwide (Edinburgh International Festival, Prague Spring, Salzburger Festspiele, Oude Muziek Utrecht, Tage Alter Musik Regensburg, Festival de la Chaise-Dieu, Festival de Saintes, Bachfest Leipzig). Her collaboration with Bach Collegium Japan brought her to Carnegie Hall in New York. She has toured the USA and Australia with the renowned cornettist Bruce Dickey. In 2017, under Sir John Eliot Gardiner, she performed solo roles in all three Monteverdi operas in leading opera houses in Europe and the USA. Alongside early music she also regularly performs contemporary music, for example with the Berg Orchestra. In addition to singing she plays the gothic and Romanesque harp. Her work is documented on more than forty recordings.

Barbora Kabátková has lived with music since childhood. She was strongly shaped by piano lessons with Marie Štajnochrová and by her long-standing involvement in the Kühn Children’s Choir. After completing secondary school she studied Choral Conducting of Sacred Music at the Faculty of Education and Musicology at the Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Prague, where she now continues with a specialization in Gregorian chant. Through interpretation courses with Maria van Altena, Peter Kooij, Julie Hassler, Howard Crook and Joel Frederiksen, she found her path to early music, which has become her main focus. She plays medieval harps and the psaltery. On Czech and international stages she performs with renowned ensembles such as Collegium Vocale Gent, Collegium Marianum, Collegium 1704, Musica Florea, Cappella Mariana, Concerto Melante, Accentus Austria, La Grande Chapelle, Concerto Palatino and others. Barbora also enjoys contemporary music — she has performed with the Berg Orchestra, Ostravská banda and the NDR Elbphilharmonie Hamburg.

www.annafliegerova.cz
www.tichykontrabas.cz
www.michalhruby.bandcamp.com
www.klauskugel.com
www.romanovska.tichy.hruby.kugel-quartet.com
www.tiburtina-ensemble.com

The concert is presented as part of the Jazzconnexion 2026 project with financial support from the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic, the Pardubice Region, and the City of Pardubice.



Admission: 240 CZK (students and disability card holders: 50% discount at the door)

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