Štěpánka Balcarová

„’m every inch a jazz person. But with each of my compositions, I wish to deliver a message to the listener or to communicate a certain feeling or idea . . . and thus I often find myself straying away from the world of jazz, even if just a little. My main source of inspiration has been nature, and lately also silence! It is when I manage to pause and to stop the whirling thoughts in my head that music starts speaking to me.“  Štěpánka Balcarová is the leader of the jazz big band Concept Art Orchestra, a foremost progressive ensemble whose repertoire mainly consists of the original works by Štěpánka herself and five other members of her generation, who refer to themselves as „The Prague Six“. She also leads the Czech-Polish quintet Inner Spaces and a septet with Polish singer Małgorzata Hutek. With Inner Spaces, Štěpánka has received the prestigious Anděl Award in the jazz category for the album „Light Year“, and with Concept Art Orchestra she received the same prize for the album „The Prague Six“. In addition to her career as a performer and composer, she also organizes the Karel Krautgartner’s Composition Contest for the best composition for a jazz orchestra.

Artist´s picks from the Animal Music catalogue: „The music of my friends, Luboš Soukup, Vítek Křišťan, Jaromír Honzák, David Dorůžka, and Jiří Slavík.“