Notebook of an [Un]Successful Musician

Zdenek Bruderhans started learning piano at eight and flute at fifteen years of age. At twenty, he became flautist in the opera orchestra of the Prague National Theatre. There were extremely limited contacts with the flautists outside Czechoslovakia, but, on the other hand, after WWII, Prague became a crossroad between East and West, and for some greatest artists (Richter, Gilels, Oistrach, Kogan, Rostropovic, Szeryng), Prague was the venue where they started their international career. Their art was an inspiration for the development of Bruderhans’ very individual style of aesthetics and playing. This style brought him an ‘absolute’ victory among five instrumental categories at the 1959 PJ International Competition; his debut LP for SUPRAPHON was also released by Columbia in the US and Japan, and in 1968, he represented the state label Supraphon and Czechoslovakia at MIDEM in Cannes, France, as one of the three performers. In 1968, he emigrated and after teaching in a Swedish institute, he was appointed as flute professor at the University of Adelaide, whilst continuing his solo performance touring and recording. Main repertoire interests are devoted to duo works with keyboards and unaccompanied flute repertoire. His discography and full-length recitals were highly acclaimed by critics. Other interests were development of new flute techniques, new insight in learning process and musical performance, all embodied in his three books (one in Czech) and discography, accessible at YouTube..".".memorable performance…wizardry…"" –London, The Daily Telegraph.".".in triomph en tous points…"" –Bruxelles, La Revue de Disques.".".magical sound which can often sound other-worldly… a joyous disc, for giving the chance what the flute can achieve…"" –Musicweb International