Gabriela Demeterová

Violinist, violist, soloist of world orchestras, the first Czech finalist in the Yehudi Menuhin International Violin Competition in England, member of  the artistic council of the Prague Academy of Performing Arts, acknowledged as "The Woman of the Year 2005" by an opinion poll in the prestigious Prague Leaders Magazine. 

Education

Gabriela Demeterová started to play the violin at the age of three. In the Czech Republic, she studied at the Prague Conservatory and at the Prague Academy of Performing Arts (AMU) under Prof. Nora Grumlíková. During her studies, she regularly took part in Master Classes all over the world. Moreover, in the year 2000, she completed her two-year post-graduate course at the Royal Academy of Music in Denmark, where she studied under Marta Líbalová. The specific rules of period performing practice she consulted with specialists in Holland. 

Competitions

Since 1980, she has entered many national as well as international competitions and was awarded many a prize, among others in Kocian’s violin competition in the Czech Republic. In 1987, she for the first time participated in the Yehudi Menuhin International Competition in England becoming the first Czech finalist. In 1993, she won there all main prizes, including the overall winner and a special prize for the best performance of J. S. Bach’s composition as the first all prize winner in the history. Also, she gained the 2nd prize, the Laureate title and The Prize of the Capital Town of Prague in the Prague Spring Violin Competition in 1992. In years 1992-1993 was Gabriela Demeterova twice awarded the Premier Prix of The Czech Musical Foundation for her achieved success and presentation of Czech culture on world class competition stages. In 1996 was Gabriela Demeterová nominated for the Talent of the Year award by the Harmonie Magazine. Her videoclips as the first in classical music field were nominated and  awarded several times prize "Pecka roku" by ACRA association.

Baroque Music

For many years, Gabriela Demeterová has been involved in baroque music study and performance; she plays a modern instrument using elements of period performing practice. Since 1998, she has been using the baroque tuning (415Hz), which is almost a halftone lower than what we use today. The result of the lower tuning is a better sound of the particular keys and their discord, a better possibility of work with upper partials, and a better tone-colour. 

Viola

In the year 2001, Gabriela Demeterová started to study playing the viola. She has become one of the few musicians who play both the violin and the viola.  

Concerts

Gabriela Demeterová gives concerts in Europe, the USA,the South America and Japan. She cooperates with notable ensembles and conductors from all over the world. Among her successes belongs Dvorák’s Violin Concerto conducted by Libor Pesek in Prague Rudolfinum, which brought her an exclusive contract from Supraphon, or her debut in Clowes Hall in Indianapolis, the USA. There she performed with one of the best-known chamber ensembles in the USA, The Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Kirk Trevor, the principal director. Again she appeared in the USA in Columbia, the capital of Missouri, at the prestigious Summer Music Festival.

In September 2004 Gabriela Demeterová gave with huge success several performances of Dvorák violin concerto in Mexico City with The Orquesta Filarmónica de la UNAM conducted by the Chief conductor Maestro Zuohuang Chen. The concerts were live tv broadcasted  across the Latin America.

In March 2005, she gave several highly-regarded concerts with Maestro Tadaaki Otaka and The Sapporo Symphony Orchestra in Japan.

With her own chamber ensemble, she regularly takes a Christmas concert tour of Japan. Full details on her concert performances, you will find on the following website: www.gabrielademeterova.cz.

Ensembles

From the year 1995, she was a soloist and artistic director of the Czech Philharmonic Collegium chamber ensemble. Its focus was performing baroque music and little-known pieces of Czech composers. 

Her solo-partner in performing baroque music is Prof. Giedré Luksaité - Mrázková (harpsichord, hammerklavier, organ).

Since 2003, she has also cooperated with pianists Rena Sharon, Norbert Heller and Nora Skutová.

Since 2004, she started to perform together with guitar player Pavel Steidl. 

In June 2005, she founded The  Gabriela Demeterová Collegium. She is its soloist and artistic director.

Recordings

Since 1994, she has been recording for Supraphon, where she issued 13 CD’s, e.g. Concertos and Sinfonias Concertante by Carl Stamitz, Dvorák’s Violin Concerto in A minor, and H.I.F. Biber’s Rosary Sonatas (the set).

To celebrate the Year of J.S. Bach in 2000, she, together with Giedré Luksaité-Mrázková, recorded all six Bach’s Sonatas for Violin and Harpsichord BWV 1014-1019 using the old tuning.

 The recording of Six Duets by Carl Stamitz Op. 1 for Violin and Viola is considered a unique project, as she herself recorded both the violin and the viola parts.

Together with pianist Norbert Heller, she has recorded the set of 16 Mozart’s sonatas for piano and violin. The five CD’s only include finished sonatas written by the mature composer. Both artists used historic instruments in lower tuning usual in the 18th century.

Since the year 2003, she has also recorded for Classico, a Danish company, where she issued four CD’s. The most recent of them is Brahms’s Violin Concerto conducted by Douglas  Bostock with The Czech Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra Pardubice.

In May 2005 the Czech pop group "100 Animals" released the DVD "Are You Crazy?" featuring a live recording from Prague’s club Acropolle. Gabriela Demeterová was the only classical music exclusive guest. She performed P. Ostrouchov’s arrangements of the famous Largo from A. Dvorák’s New World Symphony and top charted 100 Animals’s song  "Dáma s Cápem".

The Festival and The Endowment Fund of Gabriela Demeterová

In August 2001, she founded the international music festival of "Baroque Pearls of Gabriela Demeterová". It focused on support for young talented musicians, who could take part in Master Classes led by renowned artists from all over the world during the festival. Another focus of the festival was support for reconstruction of historic monuments. One of these "baroque pearls" was the Manetín Chateau near Plzen, others St. Nicolas’ Church in Kozojedy, or the Chateau of Valeè… Generally, the support of the festival aimed at historic monuments in the region of Plzen-North.

Currently, the festival is not held with respect to available time. She, however, continues her idea of support for historic monuments by giving benefit concerts shielded by the Conservation Institute in Plzen.

In January 2003, she founded the Endowment Fund of Gabriela Demeterová, which became the chief organizer of the festival above. Its main goal is still support for young musicians and reconstruction of historic monuments.  

Instruments

Gabriela Demeterová performs on a violin made by Giuseppe Rocca, an Italian master, in the year 1855, and a Kaspar Strnad violin from the year 1795. This precious instrument has been lent to her from the state collection of instruments of the National Museum in Prague.

The viola she plays was made by Dalibor Bzirský, a Czech master, in the year 2006. 

Media

Gabriela Demeterová was in the years 2002 - 2004 the moderator of Terra Musica, a music programme of Czech Television, which maps the current world of culture. Since 2003, she has also been cooperating with Czech Radio 3 - Vltava. She prepares the programme of Rondo, in which she presents remarkable recordings from the world of classical music. She also discusses classical music topics in the programme of Matiné on the same radio station. 

The Woman of the Year 2005

Gabriela Demeterová won this appraisal in an opinion poll of the prestigious magazine of Prague Club Magazine. She gained it for her contribution in the field of fine arts, her record, and her representation of the Czech culture in the Czech Republic as well as abroad.

Gabriela Demeterová was also included in the publication of TOP 50 most interesting women in the CR.

more info: www.gabrielademeterova.com