Jiří Kabát studied at the Prague Conservatory and the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. As a soloist, conductor or composer, he worked with most Czech orchestras. He is a prize-winner from international competitions and has also received other awards and scholarships such as Classic Prague Award, Governor’s Prize, Tillett Trust Bursary and others. For eight seasons he held the position of violist in the Vlach Quartet Prague, and for two years he worked in the same role with the Pavel Haas Quartet.
He is a member of chamber group Barocco sempre giovane. Jiří taught at the Pardubice Conservatory, and from the 2020/21 school year he was appointed director of the art school in Pardubice-Polabiny. He is also a graduate of composition and conducting in the class of Jiří Gemrot respectively Miriam Němcová and Miroslav Košler. In 2011, he was awarded the absolute winner of the Antonín Dvořák International Composition Competition. He is the recipient of the 2013 OSA award for the most successful Czech composer of classical music. His works were performed, for example, at the Festival International Echternach, in the chamber series of the Prague Symphony Orchestra and the Czech Philharmonic, Festival du Lubéron and many others.
Viola
Jiří KabátDaniel Jun
Composition
Allan Nilles – violaJakub Sládek – piano
Viola
Czech Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra Pardubicecond. Stanislav Vavřínek
Arrangement
suite, arr. J. Kabát
I first met Jiří Kabát while he was still a conservatory student, when I invited him to join me in a concert performance of Mozart’s Sinfonia concertante. Even then, his viola playing was remarkable. Since then he has also established himself as an outstanding composer and arranger, and his compositions have rightly earned him a number of awards. Last but not least, he also conducts. Jiří Kabát is a truly exceptionally gifted young artist.
We asked Jirka Kabát whether he would write a few arrangements for us. We had a feeling that his training as a composer, combined with the fact that he is a superb instrumentalist himself, could produce pieces tailor-made for us. And it was a bull’s-eye!
Jirka’s arrangements are extremely demanding to learn, but they are lyrical, witty, effective, virtuosic and make perfect use of everything the cello can do. What more could we wish for… Since then we have worked with Jirka regularly, and he has had the lion’s share in our latest CDs.
Working with Jirka was an immensely inspiring experience for me. He approached my songs with great sensitivity and put his experience as an arranger to excellent use. He managed to bring together the worlds of classical and popular music in a very natural way. I hope that our collaboration, which culminated in a concert with the Pilsen Philharmonic, was not our last joint project.
Craftsmanship as it should be – that’s Jirka Kabát! Always excellent, honest work. Working with Jirka is a joy, and we are glad he always makes time for us.
We have been working with Jiří Kabát for several years now and cannot praise the collaboration highly enough. Smooth communication, and parts always delivered quickly and flawlessly. I would also like to mention that Jiří often gets difficult tasks from us – arranging pieces tailored to our orchestra – and he always handles them perfectly. Thank you for everything; we look forward to continuing our work with Jiří.
For PSO, Petra Soukupová
Fitting the sound of a big band into our line-up is no easy task, and not everyone always pulls it off. With Jirka, though, we can count on it! It is an honour – and many thanks!
As the grain of each phrase differs, Kabat fine-tunes his interpretation and seems to rethink the purpose of each change
Since the days of the Czech Quartet, in which Josef Suk and Oskar Nedbal played, the Vlach Quartet are perhaps the first to have a similarly promising composer among their members.
His playing is marked by masterful musical craftsmanship placed at the service of true art. A deep humility and a desire to penetrate every detail of the score recall the legacy of the Vlach Quartet and revive the old musicians’ “truths” concerning perfect articulation, the shaping of dynamics and the building of phrases. The modesty and perspective with which Kabát creates are as captivating as the sound of his beautiful viola from the workshop of the violin maker Jaroslav Kohout.
