Lada Valesova Biography

Biography

Lada graduated from the Prague Conservatoire and Prague Music Academy and came to London’s Guildhall School of Music and Drama where she had been awarded a full three year scholarship. She is a Professor at the Guildhall and since 2009 Lada has been working as a guest coach at the Jette Parker Young Artists Programme at Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in general repertoire. She also recently joined the teaching staff at the Royal Academy of Music as an Opera Roles Coach and she is a regular guest coach at the National Opera Studio, London.

Musical style

Having been taught by the late pedagogue Valentina Kameníkova, and Eugene Indjic, a pupil of Arthur Rubinstein, her pianism is firmly ensconced in the Eastern European tradition. 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 the late Galina Vishnevskaja and Mstislav Rostropovich, and earned recognition from artists including the late Sir George Solti and the late Sir Charles Mackerras. Lada is regularly invited to give master classes to young musicians specialising in Russian and Czech repertoire, most recently at the Conservatoire de Paris, at Casa da Musica in Portugal and for Emerging Artists in Auckland, New Zealand.

Lada is in demand as a song recitalist and has performed with singers including Natalya Romaniw, Nicky Spence, Roderick Williams, James Platt, Ashley Riches, Pumeza Matshikiza, Anita Watson, Lukasz Jakobski, Joao Fernandes and American bass Laurence Albert.

Recordings

Lada’s debut CD of Czech Piano Music’ Intimate Studies’ on the Avie label had universal international critical acclaim, praised for the intelligence of her programming and high refinement and sensitivity of her interpretations. It was followed by her second solo disc ‘Dumka’ (Avie Records) which explored in depth this particular Slavic musical form. For her third recording Lada devised and curated the album ‘Fata Morgana’ -songs by Pavel Haas, with vocal music by this neglected Czech Jewish composer (Resonus Classics). The CD was released in 2017 and won the title “The CD of the Year 2017″ awarded by Europadisc. It has recently been nominated for the Vocal Awards by the BBC Music Magazine Awards 2018. Featuring four song cycles composed by Haas at various stages in his shortened life, this captivating album includes the world premiere recording of Fata Morgana, Op. 6 – Haas’s first major work composed following his studies with Leoš Janáček, in 1922.

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Opera work

Lada has worked for all the major UK opera companies. Her very first UK engagement for an opera company, whilst still a student at the Guildhall School, was as a prompter for Anja Silja in her role as Emilia Marty in the Glyndebourne’s legendary production of Janáček’s Macropolous Case, directed by Nikolaus Lehnhoff and conducted by Sir Andrew Davis. She has coached singers such as Sir Willard White, Angela Gheorghiou, Mark Padmore, Nicky Spence and Natalya Romaniw.

 In the last two seasons Lada has worked on highly successful productions of Rusalka/ Scottish Opera, Queen of Spades/ Opera Holland Park, Eugene Onegin / Garsington Opera, Jenufa / Grange Park Opera, Kata Kabanova / Opera Holland Park, Jenufa / Kungliga Operan, Stockholm, Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta and Prokofiev’s The Fiery Angel / Scottish Opera.

Already in 2018 Lada has worked on the new production of Janáček’s “From the House of the Dead” at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, conducted by Mark Wigglesworth and directed by Krzysztof Warlikowski. She will also work on the new production of Eugene Onegin for Scottish Opera, conducted by Stuart Stratford and directed by Oliver Mears.