Born in 1996 in Brno, Czech Republic, Jakub Sládek began studying piano at the age of six. He is studying with Professors Ronan O’Hora and Noriko Ogawa in the Artist Diploma program at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama in London. He finished his bachelor’s and master’s studies with Professor František Malý at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, receiving the Prize of Nadjezda Pochlebina-Sazina for the best graduate of the Piano Department. He is a recipient of the Yamaha Music Foundation of Europe Prize and is an artist of the Talent Unlimited Trust. He is currently working toward recording the complete piano works of the unjustly forgotten late 20th century Czech emigré composer Jan Novák in a set of three CDs with Toccata Classics in the span of the next five to ten years. Jakub has attended various masterclasses, for example with Imogen Cooper, Christian Blackshaw, Joanna MacGregor, Cristina Ortiz, Lukáš Vondráček, Yury Shadrin and Andrea Bonatta. He has also studied with professors Marcel Baudet, Naum Grubert, Avedis Kouyoumdjian, Viktorie Švihlíková, Martin Kasík, Kirill Gerstein and Grigory Gruzman.
He won first prizes at such competitions as the International Virtuosi per Musica di Pianoforte Competition (Grand Prix), International AMADEUS Competition, Prague Junior Note Competition, International Piano Competition Košice and the National Piano Competition of Art Schools in Czech Republic (Grand Prix). He received the 3rd prize at the International A Step towards mastery competition in St. Petersburg and became one of the prizewinners at the Ettlingen Piano Competition in Germany. He became a semifinalist of the Lyon International Piano Competition. He was awarded the 3rd prize at the International Leoš Janáček Piano Competition as well as the prize for best interpretation of a piece by Leoš Janáček. He won the 3rd prize at the Marbella International Piano Competition (first prize was not awarded). He became a finalist at the Campillos International Piano Competition, where he also won the audience prize.
Jakub has performed throughout Europe, in Slovakia, Germany, Austria, Poland, Hungary, Slovenia, France, Spain, Italy, Greece, Norway and Great Britain. He had his first solo performance with an orchestra at the age of ten. He has performed as a soloist with the Brno Symphony Orchestra, the Bohuslav Martinů Philharmonic Orchestra, the Málaga Philharmonic Orchestra, the Prague Philharmonia, the Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra, the Czech Philharmonic Youth Orchestra and the Brno Philharmonic Orchestra. He is also an active chamber musician, regularly performing with various chamber ensembles and since 2019 is a scholarship holder of the Academy of Chamber Music in Czech Republic. He has performed several times for the Czech Radio and had multiple TV appearances, both in Czech Republic and abroad.
Jakub is immensely grateful for the support of the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, the Czech Music Trust Foundation, the Jan Hus Foundation, the Czech Ministry of Culture, Help Musicians, the Drake Calleja Trust and the Kathleen Trust.
