Song Recital: Cukrová, Willi

Barbara Maria Willi

Innovative harpsichordist and soloist on the hammered dulcimer, organist, teacher, dramaturge, musical visionary and, last but not least, presenter. As this year’s re-elected Dean of the Faculty of Music at JAMU, Barbara Maria Willi is pushing the horizons of the music field, and thanks to her consistent work, the Department of Organ and Historical Performance, which she founded, is gaining an international reputation. Since 2014 she has been a guest professor at the University of the Artsin The Hague, the Netherlands. As a Czech citizen with Polish and German roots, she brings to the Czech environment the diversity and quality of the European cultural space. In the course of her international career, she has received numerous awards, including the German Music Critics’ Prize, the prestigious “Choc du monde de musique” and the French “Nobel Prize” in music, the “Diapason d’Or”. He tirelessly opens up repertoire resources, but also contacts with inspiring musical personalities, such as conductor Tomáš Netopil, singers Martina Janková and Markéta Cukrova, and violinist Josef Špáček. Barbara brings new perspectives to musical perception (she is, for example, the author of the detective story Generálbas or Who Murdered Counterpoint?) and often surprises with her distinctive interpretations. She is passionate about researching the songwriting of Czech composers of the 18th and 19th centuries.