Lukáš Janata

Pre-College
  • Collegium Choral Director
  • Composition
  • Musicianship
Lukáš Janata headshot

Contact

Departments

Pre-College
Continuing Education

Education

MM, San Francisco Conservatory of Music

DIS, Prague Conservatory (2017)

Ensembles

San Francisco Symphony Chorus

Q&A

What is your hometown?

Oldřichov v Hájích, Czech Republic

What is your favorite recording? Why?

György & Marta Kurtág playing Kurtág's four-hand piano arrangement of Bach's "Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit". The connection, the energy—unparalleled.

What are you passionate about outside of music?

Cognitive Science; how can sound creativity engage with empathetic mechanisms in our brain.

Who were your major teachers?

David Conte, John Corigliano, Otomar Kvěch

What is a favorite quote that you repeatedly tell students?

A core Walden School philosophy in which the virtuos cycle represents the following: "fluency leads to creativity leads to fluency leads to creativity, (...)"

What question do you wish students would ask sooner rather than later?

I don't think there is sooner or later; I think each question has its own course of time and it's important to feel secure (with best intention) to experiment and/or fail in an academic environment.

What was the defining moment when you decided to pursue music as a career?

Realizing music is not just a personal expression but a powerful tool in society.

What was a turning point in your career?

Leaving the comfort of home environment, seeking new and challenging perspectives.

If you weren't a musician or teacher, what do you think you would be doing now?

Creative work with language or psychology.

What is your daily practice routine?

Routinely disrupting it! Well, maybe except for hand-grinding morning coffee beans.

From a music history perspective, what year and city are most important to you, and why?

c. 1800 BCE, region between Ur and Nippur of the Babylonian empire. Important musical cross-cultural exchange with lasting effects to this day.

What is your unrealized project?

From musical, community, to societal projects—there are too many, and I have an entire life to realize, succeed or fail in at least some of them!

What do you think makes a concert experience unique?

I believe the true uniqueness emerges when the composer, performer, and listener form a connection—a magical triangle that transforms concerts into unforgettable moments.

Please list your most important collaborations.

San Francisco Symphony SoundBox—pandemic extravaganza—with Nico Muhly

Orchestra of St. Luke's with Brad Lubman and Augusta Read Thomas

Lipa Musica, a Czech-German music festival with focus on reparation of Czech-German Sudetenland relationships; a full-evening immersive project focusing on a question of recurring exile and suffering and recurring hope and forgiveness

Biography

Lukáš, a Czech San Francisco-based artist and composer, explores empathy in various forms, serving as a composer, educator, performer, and organizer. His recent endeavors include board directorship at The Resonance Project, a nonprofit focusing on music as a conflict transformation through neuroscience. He co-organized a San Francisco Ukraine-benefit Concert of Compassion, uniting national American and Ukrainian artists on one stage. Lukáš co-curated SUMU in Helsinki, supported by the EU Commission, and regularly co-hosts the international empathy-provoking new-music festival ECHOES in Prague. He instructs at The Walden School and the San Francisco Conservatory Of Music. In 2024, Lukáš will be Composer-in-Residence at the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation, Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts, ISCM’s VICC (Sweden), and received the Susan and Ford Schumann Fellowship for the 2024 Aspen Music Festival. His compositions have been commissioned by renowned ensembles, including the San Francisco Symphony, Cantori New York, Janáček Philharmonic Ostrava, Friction Quartet, 2Low duo, Bluvenduo, and Punkt Prague, among others.

Lukáš has received several awards such as the Highmisth Award for CATCH (2022) (symphonic orchestra); Southwest American Prize for BABEL (2018) (symphonic orchestra); Kühn Choir of Prague Composition Award for Nová míza (2022) (SSAATTBB a cappella); or International Composition Competition Riga for his Kyrie (2014) (mixed choir, piano, electronics). His composition mentors include John Corigliano, David Conte (MM ’19, San Francisco Conservatory Of Music), and Otomar Kvěch (DiS (BA) ’17, Prague Conservatoire). He has participated in masterclasses with composers George Lewis, Allain Gaussin, Liviu Marinescu, Dimitris Maronidis, Michel Merlet, and Ériks Ešenvalds, and has collaborated with many composers, including Nico Muhly, and conductors, such as Ragnar Bohlin, Mark Shapiro or Alena Hron.

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