Dr. Jan Pirner

Czech Republic

Jan Pirner has been the choirmaster of childrenʼs choir Radost Praha since 2012 and chamber choir Vokalion Praha since 2015, with which he has won many international awards (Bratislava, Kaunas, Montreux, Neerpelt, Preveza, Rimini, Sopot, Tours, Varšava). He is a regular member of juries of national and international choral competitions as well. After graduating from grammar school he went on to study Czech Language and Literature and Music Education at the Faculty of Education of Charles University in Prague (2002–8), and also studied musicology at the Faculty of Arts (2003–6). His first experience with organised music dates back to his childhood days as a member of the boys’ choir Pueri gaudentes; he later joined various professional choirs and chamber ensembles (Kühn Choir of Prague, the Prague Chamber Choir, the Czech National Choir, and the Prague Philharmonic Choir). In the years 2010–16 he was a director of the Prague Chamber Choir, taking it on tours through most of Europe, Japan, and Lebanon, and repeatedly participating in major music festival (Rossini Opera Festival, Wexford Festival Opera, etc.). Since 2012, he works it the National Information and Consulting Centre for Culture as expert guarantor of choirmaster workshops, administrator of the music library, editor of the Polyhymnia Bohemica choral series and adult choirs coordinator. He was engaged as an editor of the academic journal Hudební věda (Musicology) and as a musicologist specialised on a work of Antonín Dvořák at the Department of Music History of the Institute of Ethnology of the Czech Academy of Sciences (2012–18). In 2016, he received a best choirmaster award at Kaunas Cantat in Lithuania, and the Prague 7 Award for Cultural Achievements. In the same year, he received national price Choirmaster junior, awarded by the Czech Choirs Association.