Biography
- Jana Janků (mezzo-soprano) has a degree from the Academy of Early Music and Musicology, College of Arts, Masaryk University in Brno. She has also taken intensive private lessons with Magdalena Hayossyová, Professor of the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague. Ms. Janků has participated in numerous master courses under the direction of Europe's finest musicians, such as Barbara Schlick, Marius van Altena, Richard Wistreich, Roberto Gini, Evelyn Tubb, Gerard Lesne or James Griffet. She has sung leading roles in a number of Baroque operas, such as Henry Purcell's Dido a Aeneas, E. de Cavalieri's Rappresentazione di anima e di corpo, F. X. Brixi's Erat unum cantor bonus, etc. She has been engaged by the National Theatre Prague and the National Theatre in Brno. Ms. Janků has also performed with the Janáček Philharmonic Orchestra Ostrava, the Bohuslav Martinů Philharmonic Orchestra Zlín, the Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra Olomouc, Czech Virtuosi and the Czech Chamber Soloists (Bach's Magnificat, Charpentier's Te Deum, Vivaldi's Gloria, etc.); and with conductors such as T. Netopil, T. Hanák, P. Fiala, or R. Štúr.
Ms. Janků is a founding member of the ensemble Musica Poetica and frequently appears with various other Czech ensembles, such Tibia, the Hof-Musici, or the contemporary-music Ensemble Opera Diversa (e.g. in the cartoon version of the opera Talking Cattle). She has a number of recordings with the Czech Radio and the Radio Proglas to her credit, as well as several documentaries produced by the Czech TV.
She is also playing the baroque triple harp (studies at the Conservatory in Verona with Maria Cleary and at the Conservatory in Graz with Tanja Vogrin).