Lada Valešová

Lada graduated from the Prague Conservatoire and Prague Music Academy, followed by London’s Guildhall School of Music and Drama where she was awarded a full three year scholarship, and where she is now professor. Having been taught by late pedagogue Valentina Kameníkova, and Eugene Indjic, a pupil of Arthur Rubinstein, her pianism is firmly ensconced in the Eastern European tradition.

Lada’s debut CD ‘Intimate Studies’ (Avie Records) has received universal critical acclaim, with praise for her musical intelligence, refinement, and the sensitivity of her interpretations: “mesmerising pensiveness … in this entirely imaginatively planned recital Valešová plays with heart-warming sensibility and tonal refinement” (Daily Telegraph).

Lada’s performances have won several honours including two awards at the International Smetana Piano Competition, the Best Piano Duo (with Zoë Mather), and the Alexander Wise Memorial Prize for best performance of Romantic music. She has had the honour of working with late Galina Vishnevskaja and Mstislav Rostropovich, and earned recognition from artists including late Sir George Solti and late Sir Charles Mackerras.

As both a solo and collaborative concert pianist, Lada is busy and in high demand. Her debut recital at the Wigmore Hall earned her the claim that she is “one of the most gifted accompanists of all” (Music Opinion). She has performed at St. John’s Smith Square, the ROH, and continues to appear in festivals and concerts in Prague. Last summer she performed in trio with clarinetist Jiří Hlaváč and cellist Leonid Gorochov at the Třeboň International Music Festival.

In UK she has performed at festivals including the Three Choirs Festival in Hereford, the Oxford Lieder Festival, and Warwick International Music Festival. She has been featured on BBC Radio 3′s In Tune, BBC 3 Breakfast and Classic FM, as well as a number of European, New Zealand and US radio stations. Marking the 250th anniversary of Mozart’s birth Lada performed in Phil Grabsky’s feature documentary ‘In Search of Mozart’, to great acclaim.

In the past she has given masterclasses at the Paris and Lyon Conservatoires, as well as opera studios in Portugal and New Zealand. Today she is often invited to work with young musicians, specialising in Russian and Czech repertoire, and is a coach for the Jette Parker Young Artists Programme.

This season she looks forward to performances in London, Prague and Antibes, and will begin work on her second solo piano CD for Avie Records, playing music by Czech and Russian composers.