BLANKA JUHAŇÁKOVÁ

Chorus Master / Conductor

About

Prof. MgA. BLANKA JUHAŇÁKOVÁ, ArtD.

Blanka Juhaňáková, blessed with perfect pitch from childhood, graduated from the Bratislava Conservatory, where she majored in piano (with Eva Pappová) and minored in voice (with Zlatica Livorová). Completing six years of study in just four years, she was then accepted at the Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Brno, in the Czech Republic. Upon completion of her studies in piano performance (with Professor Inessa Janíčková) she played Grieg's Concerto for Piano and Orchestra in A minor at the graduation concert. She went on to study choral conducting at the same academy (with Associate Professor Josef Pančík). In 1993, Juhaňáková served as corepetitor at the International Singing Courses led by Elena Nikolaidi in Houston, Texas, in the USA. Juhaňáková is currently a senior teacher at the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava. Since 2000, she has chaired the Choir Singing Committee of the National Center of Education in Slovakia Since 2002, she has served as a member of the Concert Artists´ Committee for the Music Fund, and since 2003, she has served on the Council of Arts and Sciences at the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava.

Conducting profession

1991 - 2001

From 1991 to 2001, she served her first term as Chorus Master of the Slovak Philharmonic Choir, studying and performing numerous notable compositions with the choir. These works included Schönberg's Jacob's Ladder; Adams's Harmonium; concert opera performances of Wieland the Smith by J. L. Bella; Aida by Verdi; Turandot by Puccini (in cooperation with orchestra conductor Ondrej Lenárd); and staged opera performances of Carmen by Bizet, A Masked Ball by Verdi, and Tales of Hoffman by J. Offenbach (presented in Lille, France, with conductor Jean Claude Casadesus).
She took part in the opera Boris Godunov by Mussorgsky, performed at the Salzburg Festival in Austria and in Japan, under the baton of Maestro Claudio Abbado. She prepared the Slovak Philharmonic Choir for their performance of Wagner's opera Rienzi, staged at the Vienna State Opera with Maestro Zubin Mehta.

Conducting Projects

Important projects with the Slovak Philharmonic Choir include Rossini's Petite messe solenelle, performed at The Invalides in Paris and compositions of Liszt and Z. Lukáš she conducted at the Budapest Spring Festival and at the Konzerthaus in Vienna.

A Capella Projects

The Slovak Philharmonic Choir also performed a capella concerts. The composition All-Night Vigil Op. 37 (Vespers) by Sergei Rachmaninoff--conducted by Juhaňáková--garnered enthusiastic reactions not only from audiences in Bratislava and Nitra in Slovakia, but also from audiences in Paris, in Palermo, Italy, and in Brno, Olomouc, and Prague (at the Prague Spring Festival) in the Czech Republic. During the 2012-2013 concert season, she conducted a concert of the Slovak Philharmonic Choir in Lyon, France. In the fall of 2013, she enjoyed a successful tour of Japan while conducting two a capella concerts with the choir and prepared them to sing Stabat Mater by Antonín Dvořák in Sendai and Tokyo.
At Bratislava Music Festival she conducted the Slovak Philharmonic Choir at an a capella concert Magnum Mysterium on 2 October 2013, welcomed by the audience by standing ovations and requests for three encores.

2005 - 2014

Juhaňáková served her second term as Chief Chorus Master of the Slovak Philharmonic Choir from 2005 to 2014. Important projects from this period included Boris Godunov at the Vienna State Opera under the baton of Daniele Gatti; The Feast of Pentecost by Wagner, performed in Spain with Marc Minkowsky; Beethoven's Symphony no. 9 in D minor with conductor Alain Lombard in Lugano, Switzerland; and the concert opera performance of Verdi's The Two Foscari with Bertrand de Billy at the Konzerthaus in Vienna.
In cooperation with the opera festival in St. Margarethen, Austria she prepared the Slovak Philharmonic Choir for an original staging of Verdi's opera La Traviata; Berlioz's The Damnation of Faust with Bertrand de Billy; and Mahler's Symphony no. 8 in E-flat major with Pierre Boulez in Vienna. Large opera productions also included Wagner's Lohengrin with Ralf Weikert in Wels, Austria and Tannhäuser in Las Palmas, Spain with Pedro Halffter.
Additional notable foreign productions included Beethoven's Symphony no. 9 in D minor performed in Istanbul, Turkey with Sascha Goetzel; Mahler's Symphony no. 8 in E-flat major--again in Vienna, but this time conducted by Bertrand de Billy; the opera Lohengrin at the Richard Wagner Festival Wels; and Tannhäuser--once again at the Vienna State Opera under the baton of Franz Welser–Möst; and performances of Mahler's Symphony no.2 in C minor and Beethoven's Missa solemnis in Palermo, Italy.
She also prepared the choir for concerts with the Berlin Philharmonic, where they presented works of Stravinsky and two scenes from the opera Boris Godunov by Mussorgsky, conducted by Peter Eötvös.
Summer brought the opening concert at the Carinthian Summer Music Festival in Austria, where Christoph Campestrini conducted a live premiere of the German Motet Op. 62 by Richard Strauss and Mahler's Symphony no. 2 in C minor.
With the Slovak Philharmonic Choir, Juhaňáková gave performances in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain--this time in a new opera production of Peter Grimes by Benjamin Britten at the Teatro Pérez Galdós with the conductor Pedro Halffter.
Her first collaboration with the Theater an der Wien in the new opera production of Matthias the Painter by Paul Hindemith with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra conducted by Bertrand de Billy (premiere on 12 December 2012) was, frankly, exceptional. On the occasion of the 200th anniversary of Richard Wagner's birth in May 2013, Juhaňáková participated in the new production of Tannhäuser at the Richard Wagner Festival Wels.

Guest projects

2005

In April 2005 she made her debut at the Rudolfinum in Prague (seat of the Czech Philharmonic) with the Prague Philharmonic Choir and the Czech Radio Symphony Orchestra performing Verdi's Requiem under the baton of Ondrej Lenárd.

2006

In 2006 she was the guest chorus master at the Opera House of the Slovak National Theatre in Puccini's Turandot, Leoncavallo's Pagliacci, and Mascagni's Cavalleria rusticana. She also prepared the choir for Verdi's Requiem and, working with the Prague Philharmonic Choir, gave a guest performance in Prague of Stravinsky's Psalm Symphony with the Czech Philharmonic conducted by Ondrej Lenárd.

2007

In 2007 she also prepared the choir for Verdi's Requiem and, working with the Prague Philharmonic Choir, gave a guest performance in Prague of Stravinsky's Psalm Symphony with the Czech Philharmonic conducted by Ondrej Lenárd.

2010

Collaboration with the choir of the Opera House of the Slovak National Theatre continued into 2010 with the production of Gounod's opera Faust and Margaret with the conductor Rastislav Štúr. In 2013 she made her debut as a guest chorus master in the National Theater in Prague, working with the choir of the State Opera House for their first performance of Don Carlos by Verdi under Jaroslav Kyzlink.

„The sea—such beauty of undulating waves,
so much like life made sublime by music;
it is a gift from heaven
that opens hearts“