Biography
Štěpánka Balcarová is a Czech trumpet player, composer and conductor. In 2012 she mastered at jazz trumpet at the prestigious Polish music academy The Karol Szymanovski Academy of Music in Katowice. Later she focused on the studies of composition and arrangement in Graz, Austria, under the tutoring of the renowned composer and bandleader Ed Partyka. Štěpánka currently lives in Prague. She teaches at the Jaroslav Ježek Conservatory and at the jazz department of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. She is a leader of several bands: the jazz big band Concept Art Orchestra, her septet featuring the Polish singer Malgorzata Hutek, and the Czech-Polish quintet Inner Spaces. She also plays in a music band called Trialog led by Petr Kořínek. Štěpánka also occasionally cooperates with other top-notch players of the Czech and the foreign jazz scene. Since 2019, she has been preparing a music show for the Czech radio called Jazzový podvečer. The listeners can hear the show every fourth Sunday of the month from 18:00 on the Vltava station.
Awards
In the past she was awarded in several jazz competitions for her playing and composing skills.
- 2019
- OSA Competition for the best jazz composition
Awarded for the composition Czereśnie - 2013
- Krzysztof Komeda Composer’s Competition for the best jazz composition
Awarded for Song for Children - 2012
- The Austrian jazz contest of Marianne Mendt (MM Jazzfestival)
Improvisation award - 2011
- Krzysztof Komeda Composer’s Competition for the best jazz competition
awarded 1st prize for the composition Styczen in the category “jazz theme” - 2010
- Jazz on the Odra – Wrocław – Contest for the jazz talent of the year
Prize for Artistic Attitude to Music - 2009
- Jazz Juniors Competition Krakow
2nd prize for improvisation
2nd prize for the band Inner Spaces - Zloty Krokus – Jelenia Góra
1st prize for the band Inner Spaces
2nd prize for improvisation - Jazz on the Odra – Wroclaw – Contest for the jazz talent of the year
1st Individual Prize
Work
Štěpánka Balcarová has made several music albums solely made of her own compositions. Two of them have received Czech music award Anděl in the category of jazz and blues: Inner Spaces for the album Light Year (Animal Music, 2012) and Concept Art Orchestra for the album The Prague Six (Animal Music, 2015). Another four of her albums were nominated for Anděl Music Awards in the jazz category: Life and Happiness of Julian Tuwim (Animal Music, 2017), Concept Art Orchestra for the albums Vánoce dospělých (Animal Music, 2018), 100 Years (Animal Music, 2020) and Štěstí / Happiness (Radioservis, 2022). In the past, Štěpánka Balcarová realized original projects not only with her own Concept Art Orchestra, but also, for example, with the German big band Jazzkombinat Hamburg or the Slovenian radio big band RTV Slovenija (concert part #1, concert part #2). In 2016 Štěpánka Balcarová got a scholarship from the Strings of Autumn festival and Nadace O2 to fund her studies abroad.
Štěpánka Balcarová would like to thank the following institutions for her support:
