Biography
Jan Schulmeister (*2006) has been playing the piano since the age of five. At his home Elementary Art School in Kroměříž he was a student of Eva Zonová, from September 2020 he started studying at the P.J.Vejvanovský Conservatory in Kroměříž in his mother's piano class.
He has regularly been attending national and international piano competitions since the age of seven, in these competitions he has achieved remarkable achievements – he won first prizes or absolute victories at prestigious competitions such as César Franck Piano Competition (Brusel), Piano Talents (Milano), Virtuosi per musica di pianoforte (Ústí nad Labem), Amadeus (Brno), Broumov key, Beethovenovy Teplice or Pro Bohemia (Ostrava). He won many additional special prizes in many of these competitions.
In 2021, due to the pandemic, all art competitions were held in an online form until June, and Jan spent several January days in the studio to make audio and video recordings for these competitions. These recordings were not allowed to contain any cuts and therefore had to be recorded with image and essentially be live recordings from the studio. The first attended competition was "Odin International Music Competition" (Tallinn - Estonia), which was held at the end of January this year. This started Jan's successful series of competitions this year. He won the 1st prize at this competition together with a special price in the form of an invitation to the Aarhus International Piano Competition in Denmark. The next competition was the "ISCART International music competition" for young musicians, which was held in Lugano, Switzerland. The following month Jan received the first prize from Italy in the "Orbetello International Piano Competition". Then two international competitions in Sweden followed.
From the first, prestigious two-round piano competition "Nordic International Piano Competition", Jan took home the most valuable trophy - 1st place and the prize for the best performance of a virtuoso and romantic composition.
The second "North International Music Competition" was held in Stockholm. There he won the "Absolute Winner" award across all instruments and age categories.
Another one of these competitions was the "Great Masters International Piano Competition - Vladimir Horowitz Edition" held in Spain. At this competition, Jan won the "Absolute First Prize", where he was the only one out of 80 piano candidates (from 28 countries across three continents) in his category - until 15 years of age, who achieved the full score of 100/100.
Additionally, he received a special prize for the best performance of a romantic piece.
In September 2021, the final round of the Antonín Dvořák International Radio Competition "Concertino Praga 2021" was held in the Dvořák Hall of Prague's Rudolfinum, where he qualified among four finalists out of 58 submitted recordings from all over the world. Jan received the 2nd prize in this prestigious competition of four finalists, the Audience Award and the "Karel Komarek Family Foundation Award" for the most successful Czech competitor in the solo category of this competition.
In November of the same year, he participated for the fourth time in the international competition "Virtuosi per musica di pianoforte", this time in the highest category, where he won the first prize and the prize for the most successful Czech candidate.
In 2022 he participated in four international piano competitions – Online Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition (TIPCO) where he won the first prize, II.International "Gloria Artis Music Competition in Vienna 2022" where he won the Grand Prix award for the highest point score received out of all competitors, in the international piano competition "Excellence Piano Awards" he won the Gold Award, and so far his latest international achievement is – "Manhattan International Music Competition" (New York), where he won the Gold medal with Hight Distinction.
To this day, he has over 30 victories and special awards from national and international competitions.
Jan Schulmeister also attends master interpretation courses lead by well-known Czech and foreign teachers.
In 2018/2019 school year he was a scholarship holder of prestigious MenArt program organized by the Magdalena Kožená Endowment Fund. Thanks to it, he was able to perform at the Prague Spring and Smetana's Litomyšl festivals. In November 2018 he was invited to the "Má vlast" concert series" organized by Václav Hudeček and broadcasted by TV Noe, and also became the youngest member of the PETROF Art Family.
As an absolute winner of the international competition "Amadeus", he had the privilege to perform with the Brno Philharmonic Orchestra. He performed at the final evenings of the Concertino Praga competition with the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra (SOČR). He also cooperates with the Prague Chamber Orchestra, the "Barocco sempre giovane" chamber ensemble, The Czech Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra Pardubice and the North Czech Philharmonic Teplice.
Apart from these activities he regularly performs solo concerts on both Czech and foreign stages. He also accepted invitations to perform at important national and international music festivals - Chopin Festival in Mariánské Lázně, The Dvořák Prague Festival, Prague Spring, The Prague Music Festival, Ludwig van Beethoven Music Festival Teplice or Music in the Gardens and Castle in Kroměříž.