Vita

The repertoire of this Czech singer (born in Hradec Králové) comprises operas, oratorios, rarely performed orchestral and piano songs and chamber music with obligatory vocal part.

Olga Černá studied at the Conservatory in Pardubice and at the Prague Academy of Music. While still being a student she participated in prestigious singing competitions and received several prices, among others at the International Antonín Dvořák Contest in Karlovy Vary. She continued her career abroad, from 1987 – 89 being a member of the opera studio of the Comic Opera Berlin (cooperating with Harry Kupfer), in 1990 at the Municipal Theatre Bern, followed in 1991 by opera performances in Vienna. Her activities in Berlin brought her an invitation to appear at the Bregenz Festival in Austria (Isot Weisshand in Frank Martins „Der Zaubertrank“), and she gained further valuable experience in master classes, e.g. with Sena Jurinac, as well as performing at the „Wiener Festwochen“. In 1994 she was a guest at the Prague National Theatre. Since then she works as a freelance.

Olga Černá devotes an essential part of her activities to composers who have been persecuted and murdered by the Nazis, and to neglected and less wellknown Czech and foreign composers. In November 1998 she was the soloist in the world première of orchestral songs by Ervín Schulhoff („Die Garbe“) in Munich. Already in 1995 she had been paid special attention after having recorded vocal works by Schulhoff for the Czech label Supraphon. In 1999 - together with the Viktor Ullmann String Quartet - she made a concert tour to Israel, performing especially works by Hans Krása.

A great success was a CD recording of works by Caplet, Respighi and Schönberg with Olga Černá participating as vocal soloist which the distinguished French music journal “Repertoire” in May 1999 chose as Disc of the Month. In 2001 Olga Černá gave guest performances at the Altenburg/Gera Theatre in Germany (Maddalena in “Rigoletto”), making at the same time numerous recordings for Czech Radio. At the Prague Martinů Festival 2004 Olga Černá sang the world première of songs by the early Martinů. Among her releases are a CD containing works by F. Martin, P. Haas, E. Schulhoff, B. Martinů and V. Ullmann and a CD dedicated exclusively to vocal works by Martinů, presenting many world premières (Naxos 2005).

In the last time Olga Černá sung the world première of a song cycle (“Kvítek šáronský“ – Sharon’s blossom) by the Czech composer Zdeněk Lukáš, who died 2007. She regularly appears at the festival of “forbidden music” in Terezín (Theresienstadt). There she sung in 2010 the alto in the Czech première of the vocal symphony “Menschheit” (humankind) by Ervín Schulhoff. In the same year she gave recitals in Hamburg with works by Gustav Mahler and his close friend Josef Bohuslav Foerster, at which neglected work Olga Černá actually devotes her special attention. www.sjbfoerster.cz