Martina Janková
Biography
I enjoy listening to the blackbird’s song in the trees
„I understand its urge to sing because as a child, I would be constantly vocalising the tunes that flowed from within me. I still draw from this inner spring and ever strive to imbue my music with the authenticity of my childhood sentiment.“
Ein persönliches Interview
Das persönliche Interview mit Radio Klassik 2019 Wien.
A Swiss soprano ...
In operas
Her operatic debut as Sofia in Rossini’s Il signor Bruschino in Macerata, Italy, and at the National Theatre in Prague was something of a twentieth birthday present to Martina Janková.
After completing her bachelor’s degree at the University of Ostrava, she continued her postgraduate studies at the Basel Academy of Music and the International Opera Studio, where she was offered an ensemble contract with the Zurich Opera after the first quarter. From 1998 to 2020 she participated in a number of outstanding productions in Zurich, such as the Da Ponte cycle under the direction of Franz Welser-Möst, which was also highly acclaimed in the US. At the same time Martina Janková made guest appearances on other opera stages, while also building her reputation as a concert singer and interpretive vocalist.
Some of her most unforgettable performances include the star role of Bellezza in Handel’s Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno at Milan’s La Scala, or the roles of Susanna, Despina, and Aminta in Mozart’s Il Re Pastore at the Salzburg Festival. She sang the same titular role on a tour of Europe with William Christie and his Les Arts Florissants. She performed as Mélisande in Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande with Franz Welser-Möst and The Cleveland Orchestra in the US and has also made guest appearances at the Geneva Opera House, the Styriarte in Graz, the Theater an der Wien, the Théâtre des Champs-Élysés in Paris, or the National Theatre and the State Opera in Prague.
On concert stages
A versatile singer, she is equally in demand at concert venues throughout Europe and beyond and has collaborated with an impressive number of orchestras. Mention should be made of the Czech Philharmonic, Berlin and Munich Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, and Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, the Gewandhaus Orchestra, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, The Cleveland Orchestra, and the symphony orchestras in Altanta and São Paulo. She has enjoyed inspirational cooperation with renowned conductors the likes of Neville Marriner, Simon Rattle, John Eliot Gardiner, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Nathalie Stutzmann, Iván and Adam Fischer, Trevor Pinnock, and Riccardo Chailly.
As an interpretive singer
Martina Janková is also an interpretive artist. Her vocal performances at London’s Wigmore Hall, the Salzburg Festival, the Prague Spring, the Rheingau Musik Festival, or the Styriarte Festival, alongside several recitals at the Zurich Opera House and her discography of seven song albums underline her commitment to the intimate art of singing, tracing the development of songs from the eighteenth century to the present day.
… with Czech roots
Although this native of Orlová (a Czech Silesian town near the Polish border) has been living in Switzerland for more than thirty years, she remains firmly rooted in her native country and Slavic culture. It is thus no wonder that her passion project is performing works by Czech composers, both famous and obscure, such as Jan Dismas Zelenka, Josef Mysliveček, Josef Antonín Štěpán, Václav Jan Tomášek, Jan Václav Kalivoda, Jan Václav Voříšek, Antonín Josef Rejcha, or Leopold Koželuh, whose only surviving opera, Gustav Wasa, she helped bring to life with the Helsinki Baroque Orchestra in Helsinki’s Musiikkitalo after two hundred years of slumber in Prague archives.
But she is truly at home in her Moravian dialect in the titular role of Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen, which she has performed with vivacious wit and charm at the opera houses in Zurich and Geneva, as well as Vienna, Munich, Luxembourg, and the US.
Two of her recital CDs with songs by Czech composers have also been awarded the Diapason d’Or.
Informed performances
For almost two decades, Martina Janková worked closely with the pioneer of historically informed performance practice, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, and his ensemble Concentus Musicus. Harnoncourt’s personality sparked her profound interest in informed performances. Her strong commitment to historically informed interpretations has been strengthened by her extensive collaboration with other specialists in the field, such as William Christie and his Les Arts Florissants, John Eliot Gardiner and the English Baroque Soloists, Marc Minkowski and Christopher Hogwood with La Scintilla, Andrea Marcon with La Cetra, Ottavio Dantone and Roger Norrington with the Mozarteum Orchestra, Diego Fasolis with I Barocchisti soloists and members of Filharmonia della Scala, as well as Václav Luks and Collegium 1704, Marek Štryncl and Musica Florea, or Jana Semerádová with Collegium Marianum.
H.Purcell: Fairy Queen, Styriarte Festival, M. Jankova with N.Harnoncourt, Concentus Musicus und Arnold Schönberg Chor.
“The most precious things are preserved only when we pass them on.”
This quote by Albert Schweitzer is also the motto of Martina Janková, who strives to pass on the skills and experience she has gained on the international stage, as well as her passion and love for singing, to new generations of singers at international masterclasses in the Czech Republic, Poland, Switzerland, and the United States, and since 2020 also as the lecturer of a major subject at the Zurich University of the Arts (Zürcher Hochschule der Künste, ZHdK). Her first graduates are now beginning their careers with the Zurich Opera, the Korean National Opera, or on concert stages with the renowned Basel Madrigalists or the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra & Choir.
Award-winning recordings
Martina Janková’s vocal art can also be seen and heard on a number of DVDs and CDs.