Jazz behind the Iron Curtain: a concert with Emil Viklicky and Jiri Stivin

Information from the organiser

The fifth concert in the ‘Jazz Behind the Iron Curtain’ series, which explores jazz in socialist countries during the 1960s and 1970s, focuses on Czechoslovakia. Emil Viklicky and Jiri Stivin, two legends of Czech jazz, will captivate the audience with their music and their knowledge of the jazz of that era. The concert will take place at the Jazzclub Erfurt and begins at 8 pm. 

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Emil Viklický is the most prominent contemporary Czech pianist. From 1974 to 1989, he played in Karel Velebný’s ensemble SHQ. In 1977, he was awarded a one-year scholarship to Berklee College in Boston. Back in his home country, he composed film scores and worked with various jazz groups. His compositions ‘The Mystery of Man’ and ‘Disturbing the Peace’, with lyrics by Václav Havel, were written in 2004 for Wynton Marsalis’s ‘Jazz at Lincoln Centre Orchestra’. From 1991 to 1995, he was President of the Czech Jazz Society. As a composer, in addition to jazz compositions and film music, he also wrote operas, symphonic works and electroacoustic music.

Jiří Stivín is a multi-instrumentalist (saxophone, clarinet and flute). It was only whilst studying at the Prague Film Academy (where he trained as a cinematographer) that he began to play music. As a self-taught musician, he began playing the saxophone in the Czech beat group ‘Sputnici’; he then took flute lessons from the Baroque music expert Milan Munclinger. As a member of Martin Kratochvil’s group ‘Jazz Q’ and, from 1967 to 1969, the ‘SHQ Combo’ led by Karel Velebny, he played in leading Czech jazz ensembles from an early stage. In the Prague-based ensemble ‘Quax’, he turned his hand to avant-garde music. He subsequently worked across a wide range of musical genres, from early music to contemporary music and jazz. He is known not only as a flautist, but also as a flute collector and creative flute-maker, who constructs flutes even from unconventional materials such as plastic or metal tubes, which he then performs on in concert.