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Biography
Vojtech
Sembera (*1995, Czech Republic) began
his musical education in early childhood
by studying
the piano. Later he started taking lessons
of composition with
Karel Simandl. He finished
his bachelor studies of composition in 2017
at The
Janacek Academy of Musical and Performing Arts in Brno (JAMU) in the class of
professor
Ivo Medek. He also studied singing at JAMU
first with Jaromir
Novotny, then with Irena Troupova. He finished his bachelor studies of singing
in 2018 and currently studies master's of composition.
As a singer, he is
focused mainly on interpretation
of contemporary music as well as the classical
repertory. As a composer his main interest is vocal and vocal-instrumental
music. He has attended selected interpretation courses abroad (VENI Academy
summer courses, vocal and conducting masterclass EMA) and vocal masterclass
with maestro Antonio Carangelo. As a resident composer at the Ostrava Days music
festival he had private composition lessons with Klaas de Vries, Christian Wolff,
Chaya Czernowin and others.
Awards
He is a laureate of international composition competition GENERACE 2013 & 2014 and he has been awarded 2nd prize in Antonin Dvorak's International Singing Competition in category Opera Hope in 2015. He won 2nd prize in Dusek's Singing Competition, The President of the EMA prize in 2017, 3rd prize in prestigious Antonin Dvorak International Singing Competition in categories Junior and Song and 2nd prize in the competition of vocal-instrumental ensembles Stonavska Barborka.
Performances
During his studies at JAMU he performed in several operas at
the JAMU Chamber Opera
(M. Haba: The
Little Prince - King, Snake; W. A. Mozart: Die Zauberflöte - Papageno; C. Orff:
Die Kluge - Der Mann mit dem Maulesel). His professional operatic
debut was at the Silesian Theatre Opava (A. Dvorak: Rusalka - Hunter) and he also performed at the Jan Kajetan Tyl
Theatre in Pilsen (A. Thomas: Hamlet
- Horatio). His concert activity includes collaboration with
the Carlsbad
Symphonic Orchestra (C. Orff: Carmina
Burana; J. S. Bach:
Johannespassion;
A. Dvorak: Biblical
Songs), with the National Theatre Orchestra (D. Matej: KyAriAe), the Northern
Czechia Philharmonic Teplice (W. A. Mozart: Le
nozze di Figaro - Conte Almaviva) and others.
In
collaboration with Ensemble 18+ he sang one of the leading roles in a renewed premiere
of Joseph Barta's singspiel Da ist nicht gut zu rathen. He performed his own
composition
for baritone and orchestra Philoctetes
with the Brno Philharmonic and the Western Czechia Symphonic Orchestra Maria
Spa. Together
with the conductor Leos Svarovsky and The Czech Radio Symphonic Orchestra he
made a recording of Biblical Songs by Antonin Dvorak.
On the field of contemporary music he has worked with VENI Ensemble, Mirror
Ensemble, European Music Project and others. He created several roles at the
New Opera Days Ostrava festival (A. Haba: Thy
Kingdom Come - Christ, Lay Preacher; D. Lo: A Woman Such as Myself - Man; J. Cage: Songbooks - Solo Voice). He regularly cooperates with the Meetings
of New Music Plus festival.