Pavel Zemen

The young pianist Pavel Zemen was born in 1992 into a musical family. He started playing the piano at the age of five under the guidance of his mother BcA. Taťány Zemenová and then Mgr. Irena Hlasová at the Basic Art School in Rychnov nad Kněžnou. Under their supervision, he achieved his first successes (national ZUŠ competitions, Prague Junior Note competition, Mezinarodowy festival of young pianists Glubczyce – laureate titles). From 2005, he went to HAMU in Prague, where he worked as a model with a student of the piano department, Veronika Böhmová, under the guidance of prof. Alena Vlasáková.

In 2007, he successfully completed the talent test at the České Budějovice Conservatory, which he eventually graduated with a diploma in two fields, namely in the field of piano in the MgA class. Marie Šimková-Kotrčová and in the class of Mgr. Zdenek Zavičák in the field of clarinet. During his studies, he participated in several master classes (Prof. Alena Vlasáková, Prof. Vera Nosina, Jonathan Aner, Clara Moniuszko, Eugen Indjič, etc.). He also achieved success at interpretation competitions, where he always won first place, e.g. 1st prize and the title of absolute winner of the Pro Bohemia piano competition in Ostrava, 1st prize of the Bohuslav Martinů Foundation competition in Prague, where he also received the award of the Prague Spring International Music Festival, and the concert performance as part of the Prague Spring 2013. In addition to the mentioned festival, he also performed as part of the Subscriber Series of the Czech Society for Chamber Music in the Suk Hall of the Rudolfinum in Prague or at the International Chamber Music Festival in Český Krumlov. As a soloist, he collaborated with the South Bohemian Chamber Philharmonic and the Moravian Philharmonic in Olomouc.

After graduating from the Conservatory in České Budějovice, he was accepted in 2014 at JAMU in Brno in the class of prof. Alena Vlasáková in the field of piano and in the class of prof. V. Spilky and prof. M. Pole in the field of clarinet. Already in the first year of his work at this school, he achieved significant success in international competitions – 1st prize in the international competition “Notes in Harmony” in Bettona, Italy, also 1st prize and the title of absolute winner in the international competition “Young Academy Award” in Rome in category D, as well as 4th place and finalist diploma of the international competition “Euregio Piano Award” in Geilenkirchen, Germany. In 2016, he won the 1st prize of the international competition “Young Academy Award” in Rome in category E, as well as the 6th prize and the title of finalist of the competition “Mauro Paolo Monopoli Prize” in Barletta, Italy. This year he also performed a recital matinee at the Janáček Brno 2016 music festival, which was broadcast by Czech Radio Brno, and also at the Le strade d Europe 2016 music festival in Vilnius, Lithuania, broadcast by Lithuanian Radio.

For the Department of Piano Interpretation, he was nominated to perform compositions by S. V. Rachmaninov and O. F. Korte on the broadcast of Czech Radio Vltava. Since 2016, his name has been on the List of Young Artists provided by the Czech Music Fund Foundation.

In 2017, he received a prestigious scholarship in the YMFE competition, received a special prize for his performance of S. Barber’s Piano Sonata as part of the “Ibiza International Piano Competition”, and above all, he won the 1st prize and award for the best Czech participant of the Leoš Janáček International Competition in Brno. In November of this year, he received the Grand Prix award and the recommendation of “artist of the 21st century” at the International Interpretation Competition in Lonigo, Italy, which took place as part of the International Music Forum, and made his debut with a solo recital as part of the Subscription cycle of the Association of Friends of Music operating at the Brno Philharmonic in the Besední dům . In March 2018, he won the Grand Prix at the International Piano Competition in Vienna. He is a semi-finalist in one of the biggest interpretation competitions in the world, the Leeds Piano Competition 2018.