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VIOLINIST MILAN VITEK JOINS STRING FACULTY OF OBERLIN CONSERVATORY OF MUSIC
MARCH 16, 2001--Robert Dodson, dean of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music at Oberlin College, announces the appointment of violinist Milan Vitek to Oberlin's string faculty. Vitek was bestowed RD (Knight of Dannenbrog, 1st Order) in 1999 by Her Royal Highness Margrethe II, the Queen of Denmark, for outstanding contributions to the cultural life of that country. Since 1974, he has been professor of violin at Denmark's Royal Academy of Music in Copenhagen. Vitek, who was a visiting professor at Oberlin during the 1993-94 academic year, joins the Oberlin faculty as professor of violin, effective July 1, 2001.
Vitek brings to Oberlin more than a quarter century of experience teaching students from Scandinavia, Australia, France, Germany, Holland, Korea, Japan, Canada, Mexico and the United States. Besides teaching at the Royal Academy of Music, he has taught violin, since 1992, in Sweden at the University of Gothenburg's Academy of Music. Among the many institutions and festivals where he has taught master classes in violin and chamber music are Keshet Eilon in Israel; the Britten-Pears School of Advanced Musical Education in England; and the Hong Kong Academy of Music. In 1996, he founded his own summer program for advanced violin studies in Litomysl, the birthplace of the Czech composer Bedrich Smetana. The classes are held at Litomysl Castle, one of the most revered Renaissance castles in the Czech Republic.
"Oberlin is pleased to welcome Professor Vitek to its string faculty," says Dodson. "His career has been illustrious in both performance and pedagogy. Our students will benefit greatly from his presence."
Vitek is a frequent juror at some of the most distinguished international violin competitions, including Denmark's Carl Nielsen International Violin Competition; Italy's Rodolfo Lipizer International Violin Competition; the Sweelinck Violin Competition in The Netherlands; and the Brahms International Violin Competition.
Among the many Vitek students to win top prizes at international competitions are: Nikolaj Znaider, awarded first prize at the Queen Elisabeth International Music Competition of Belgium in 1997 and at the Nielsen Competition in 1992; Malin Broman, winner of the first prize at the Washington International Competition in Washington, D.C.; and, in March 2001, Sunho Kim, winner of the first prize at the Heino Eller International Violin Competition in Tallinn, Estonia. Many of his former students hold concertmaster positions in top orchestras, among them the Royal Danish Symphony, the Danish Radio Symphony; the Copenhagen Philharmonic; the Gothenburg Symphony; the Helsinki Symphony; and the Malmo Symphony. He has also coached many chamber ensembles to critical acclaim, including the Trio Ondine, winners of the Royal Northern College of Music Broadwood Piano Trio Competition in Manchester, England.
The teacher of prizewinners is himself a competition laureate. In 1959, Vitek won the International Youth Festival Violin Competition in Wales, and in 1961 he was a prizewinner at the Jacque Thibaud International Violin Competition in Paris. His appearances as soloist include those with numerous Czech, Polish and Danish orchestras.
Vitek is also a distinguished chamber musician. He was first violinist of the Czech String Quartet, the resident chamber ensemble of McMaster University in Canada, where he served as associate professor of violin in the 1970s. He is also co-founder of Trio Pro Arte, with whom he has recorded Mendelssohn's Piano Trio in D minor, Op. 49; Smetana's Piano Trio in G minor, Op. 15; and the complete piano trios of Johannes Brahms. During the 1960s, he was leader of the Czech Nonet, the official chamber ensemble of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra.
An accomplished orchestral conductor, Vitek founded the Royal Academy Chamber Orchestra, with whom he has toured Scandinavia, Germany and Switzerland, performing with Yehudi Menuhin, Jean-Pierre Rampal, and Michel Debost, professor of flute at Oberlin. He has served as artistic director of the Danish Sinfonietta and Sweden's Camerata Romana Chamber Orchestra, and as guest conductor of the Danish Radio Symphony; the Orchestra of the Royal Danish Academy; and the Janacek Philharmonic, among many others. Other ensembles Vitek has founded or co-founded include the Danish Chamber Orchestra (he also served as artistic director), and the Prague Chamber Soloists, conducted by Vaclav Neumann. For the latter he also served as concertmaster.
Vitek completed advanced diploma studies, cum laude, at the Prague Academy of Music, with Professor J. Pekelsky, and holds a diploma from the Brno Academy of Music, where he studied with Professor J. Remes.
The Oberlin Conservatory of Music at Oberlin College, founded in 1865, is the nation's oldest continuously operating conservatory, and the only major music school in the country linked with a preeminent college of arts and sciences. The Conservatory offers majors in performance, composition, music education, music theory, electronic and computer music, jazz studies, music history, and a double major in piano performance and vocal accompanying. There are more than 400 public concerts on campus each year--most of them free--including performances by student ensembles, faculty members, and performances and master classes by guest artists.
Media Contact: Marci Janas
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