Biography
ROMAN NOVOTNÝ
flutist of the Czech Philharmonic and of the Afflatus Quintet,
soloist and professor of flute at the Prague Conservatory
He graduated from the Pardubice Conservatory and then pursued his studies at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague under Professor Jiří Válek. As a student, he won numerous awards in domestic and international competitions, garnering much attention (1st prize in the Competition of Conservatories in Brno 1987, 1st prize in interpretative competition in Pardubice 1987, 1st prize and absolute winner of Amati competition 1987, honorary mention in the International Competition Prague Spring 1996)
Roman Novotný has performed as a soloist with a number of orchestras (Prague Symphony Orchestra FOK, Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, Slovak Philharmonic, Chamber Orchestra of the Czech Philharmonic, Pilsen Philharmonic, North Czech Philharmonic Teplice, Capella Istropolitana, and Chamber Philharmonic Pardubice) under leading of top-ranking conductors (Václav Neuman, Vladimír Válek, Gerd Albrecht, Charles Olivieri Munroe, Paolo Olmi, Leoš Svárovský, Oliver Dohnányi, Petr Altrichter, Rastislav Štůr, Anton Guadagno, Jiří Malát) and given concerts in Germany, Hong Kong, and Japan. He has appeared as a soloist in the Mozart concerts at Tokyo’s Suntory Hall in the accompaniment of the Prague Chamber Orchestra.
In 1995, he founded the Afflatus Quintet ensemble, which took first place two years later at the ARD competition in Munich, positioning itself among the top chamber ensembles in Europe. It has performed at prestigious venues at home, in Europe and Japan (Prague Spring International Festival, Gewandhaus Leipzig, Berlin, Stuttgart, Munich, Hamburg, Brussels, Paris, Tokyo, international festivals in Germany, Finland and Switzerland). Afflatus Quintet obtained a host of awards like Classic Award 1997 for its extraordinary interpretations, namely of 20th century music. Czech Chamber Music Society awarded the Afflatus Quintet its Annual Prize in 1998 and in 2003 again. This ensemble have recorded eight CD titles till that time, both for Japanese Octavia Record Inc. and Supraphon label in the Czech Republic. These CDs have received the highest accolades from musical critics.
Roman Novotný also appears with harpist Jana Boušková (concerts at the international festivals Rheingau Sommer, Concentus Moraviae and Moravian Autumn international festivals and at the cycles of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra or Prague Symphony Orchestra). They have worked together to produce two CDs with music by composers of world-wide renown (Octavia Records) and also make the records for Czech Radio.
His cooperation with pianist Pavel Kašpar began in the studios of Czech Radio when recording Karel Husa’s Sonata. Since then, these artists have worked on numerous chamber projects, and their first collaborative CD, is a cross-section of the global repertoire for flute and piano.
In 2009 starts to cooperate with his coleague Jiří Pospíchal, violinist of the Czech Phil. Orchestra and with pianist Ivo Kahánek. They recorded CD together consisting of music of B. Martinů and his French contemporaries and played this project round the Czech republic and also in Germany.
Roman Novotný plays on a Japanese Muramatsu flute and teaches at the Prague´s Conservatory since 2000.