Michael Pospíšil

 

 

Michael Pospíšil was born in Jihlava, Czech Republic, in 1962.

He graduated from grammar schools and subsequently the Prague conservatory. He also took private music lessons. Since 1986, he is a freelance musician specializing in ¨old¨ music. In 1963, he founded the Ritornello ensemble.

 

Apart from Ritornello, he co-operates on various performance and studio projects both as an instrumentalist and a vocal soloist. He makes use of his intensive research of original sources in performance, production and music editing, e.g., Kroměříž Sonatas, Valerius Otto Dances from 1611, Michna's Czech Lute, Songs from Christian songbooks, the music and literature program of the Czech Christian Academy and the Czech Literature Monument, lectures for the Aletti Center in Olomouc, reconstructions of "Baroque" processions, etc.

 

He organizes interpretation workshops, teaches international summer seminars, co-operates with the Czech Radio and Czech Television where several programs on his works have been broadcast. He has recorded approx. 55 compositions on CD's and together with Collegium Pro Arte Antigua Brno, he organizes the annual Adam Michna of Otradovice Festival in Jindřichův Hradec, cultural-landscape-restoration projects in the Broumov region and in the Český Ráj area, he intensively devotes himself to the discovery of the musical, poetic and multi-talent legacy of V. K. Holan Rovenský.

 

As a soloist, he has co-operated with the following ensembles: Musica Antigua Praha, Collegium Quodlibet of Jiří Stivín, Schola Gregoriana Pragensis, Musica Florea, Choeur Grégorien de Paris, Linnamuusikuud Tallinn, Fiori Musicali Kraków, Bornus Consort Warszawa, Musicalische Compagney Berlin, Le Monde Classique Wien, Musice Eterna Bratislava and others.

 

Since 1996, he also leads the Prague Chamber Singers ensemble, for which he has produced an original concert series on the staircase of the National Museum in Prague.

He performs all around Europe, and both as an oratory singer and with the Ritornello ensemble in the USA. With the Ritornello, he has also published a series of CD's on the Arta Records label focusing on the undiscovered treasure of the songs of Czech Baroque music.