Tomáš Jamník is a Czech cellist, currently residing in Berlin. Recognized for his in-depth knowledge of each performed piece, attention to detail, and strong interest in bringing less-well-known music to a wider audience, Tomáš has established himself as a celebrated soloist in both classical and contemporary music.
In 2006 he won the Prague Spring International Music Competition and was awarded a number of special prizes, including the Czech Radio Prize, the Oleg Podgorny Prize, the Gideon Klein Foundation Prize, the Pro Harmonia Mundi Foundation Prize and the Artist’s Life Foundation Prize. He was also a finalist at the Pierre Fourniere Award 2011 in London.
Since then, Tomáš has performed extensively with top international orchestras in Europe, the U.S., and Asia, including the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Prague Philharmonia, Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra and Philharmonia Orchestra London. As a chamber musician he has performed with pianists Leif Ove Andsnes and Ivo Kahánek, violinist Josef Špaček, mezzosoprano Magdalena Kožená, the Pavel Haas Quartet, and his “home ensemble” the Dvořák Trio at venues such as London’s Barbican Hall, the Philharmonie in Berlin, the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, the Kitara Hall in Osaka, Prague’s Rudolfinum, and the Mozarteum in Salzburg.
In the recent seasons, he premiered his own version of Dvořák's Concerto for Cello and Orchestra No. 1 in A major at the Dvořák Prague festival and played the world premiere of the “Narcissus” Cello Concerto by Jan Ryant Dřízal and the Czech premiere of the “Tales of Hemingway” Cello Concerto by the American composer Michael Daugherty. Tomáš’s keen interest in contemporary music has also led him to premiere works by Czech composers Miroslav Srnka, Michal Nejtek, Slavomír Hořínka, Marko Ivanović, Tomáš ‘Floex' Dvořák, Miloš Orson Štědroň, Jiří Gemrot and Ondřej Kukal.
In the 2020-21 season, Tomáš will appear with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin and Jakub Hrůša performing Cello Concerto No. 1 by Bohuslav Martinů. From fall 2020, Tomáš will serve as a Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence at the Juillard School in New York. After that, in the spring of 2021, he will go on his first concert tour in the United States, performing Dvořák's Cello Concerto in B minor with the Prague Symphony Orchestra conducted by Tomáš Brauner.
Alongside his classical career, Tomáš is an enthusiastic educator and popularizer of classical music. Since 2015, he has served as the artistic director of the Czech Chamber Music Academy, which cooperates with the German foundation Villa Musica, and in 2019 he became the artistic director of the Ševčík Academy, which focuses on advancing the teaching method of the legendary pedagogue Otakar Ševčík. In 2016, he founded the Vážný zájem (“Serious interest”) project, which helps organize classical music concerts in people’s homes. To date, the project has facilitated hundreds of house concerts with hundreds of musicians involved. In the wake of this success, Tomáš has been invited to speak about classical music at many events - most recently at TEDx Prague.
Tomáš began his musical training in the Czech Republic under Mirko and Martin Škampa and graduated under Josef Chuchro at the Prague Academy of Performing Arts. He continued at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Leipzig under Peter Bruns and at the Universität der Künste Berlin under Jens Peter Maintz. He enriched his education at the Karajan Academy in Berlin under Ludwig Quandt and at the Kronberg Academy under Steven Isserlis, Siegfried Palm, Young-Chang Cho and Pieter Wispelwey, as well as by participating in master classes given by Heinrich Schiff, Jiří Bárta, Gustav Rivinius and Truls Mørk.
Tomáš plays a violoncello made by Lorenzo Storioni in 1784, which was generously lent to him from the private collection of Mr. Aleš Voverka.
