
NIKOL BÓKOVÁ
Pianist, Musician, Author
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CLASSICAL WORLD
The awareness that music has flowed through her body and soul has been apparent since childhood. Classical music is capable of a deep bond, a strong connection, between the composer, the interpreter and the listener, and this is something Nikol adores and, through her playing, what was a set of notes on a page transforms into a range of emotions, feelings and stories everyone can relate to in some way or other. The combination of being intimate, sensitive, fragile and, at the same time, strong and open, is what drives Nikol's desire to play.

NIKOL BÓKOVÁ TRIO
The need to create
The trio - piano, double bass, and drums - this combination of sounds and instruments are the closest Nikol has found as a core of perfectly expressing the musical language she wishes to convey.
Martin Kocián – double bass
Michał Wierzgoń – drums

INNER PLACE
DEBUT ALBUM
The album INNER PLACE is characterized by great compositional and interpretive maturity, while it also breathes with the fresh energy of a debut that witnesses an author discovering new musical worlds. These compositions are perfectly polished miniatures, simple in form yet echoing the harmonic and melodic complexity of classical piano literature. Her brilliant technique and dynamic keystrokes, as defined by her extensive experience in classical music interpretation, is unique to the world of the jazz piano.

INNER PLACE
Nikol's debut album Inner Place was nominated for the Anděl Award 2019 in the category of the best jazz album.
“I consider this music as ‘songs’; songs in which I can directly tell a story. As opposed to classical music, I view this as a more immediate, in some sense simpler way to express my emotions. I don’t feel any need to pertain to a particular genre.”
UNRAVEL
OCTOBER 2020
"...Put simply, Unravel is a fantastic record. Nikol Bóková is clearly a talent worth watching, and, however she progresses, Unravel will absolutely stand on its own as a great piece of work. Bóková has presented something evocative and powerful here; it’s also hard to imagine a better record for the ears as we head into colder months..." TJ Abbonizio, Jazz London News

COMPOSITIONS FALLING INTO THE JAZZ WORLD
"At some point, I've started to become fascinated by the sound of the jazz trio. It was a sound and combination that totally stunned me. Each performance I saw sent butterflies racing through my stomach and so the desire to pursue this sound myself was born. I began to work on compositions and very soon I formed my own trio with Martin Kocián and Michał Wierzgoń, a duo who has played often together. I knew from the first instance these two guys completely got what I was trying to do and what I wanted to say. And although I change or expand the instrumentation, the line-up piano, double bass, and drums remain my beloved compositional core."

piano, compositions
Nikol Bóková

drums
Michał Wierzgoń

double bass
Martin Kocián

PROMETHEUS
The third album by pianist and composer NIKOL BÓKOVÁ is released just one year after her previous one, Unravel (2020), which had been preceded by Bóková’s debut, Inner Place, nominated for an Anděl Award in 2019. Her Prometheus colleagues are the world-renowned French-horn player RADEK BABORÁK, foremost Czech guitarist DAVID DORŮŽKA, award-winning double-bassist JAROMÍR HONZÁK and extraordinary drummer MICHAŁ WIERZGOŃ. All are important representatives of two musical worlds – jazz and classical music – which Nikol has been originally and sensitively combining in her work.


The title track of the album Prometheus won the competition for the best jazz track of the year 2021, announced by the OSA (Copyright Protection Association for the Rights to Musical Works).

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BIO
Nikol Bóková is a musician dedicated to many genres of music. As a performer of classical music, her repertoire ranges from Baroque to contemporary music but the 19th and 20th Century periods are a primary focus. At the same time, she is an extraordinary author of her own, unique music.
Her work draws on her training as a classical pianist and combines elements of jazz, classical music, pop music, and minimalism. Over the space of three years, she has recorded three albums that met with high critical acclaim. Her debut album INNER PLACE, which was nominated for the Czech Music Academy Award, and the second album, UNRAVEL, she recorded with Michał Wierzgoń and Martin Kocián, who are foremost jazz musicians of the young generation. The third album PROMETHEUS was released in May 2021, less than a year after the release of Unravel. For the recording of Prometheus Nikol invited remarkable jazz musicians David Dorůžka and Jaromír Honzák, and world-renown French horn player Radek Baborák. In her compositions, Nikol Bóková effortlessly travels between genres, clearly fascinated by the possibilities they have to offer.
Besides composition, Nikol has pursued a solo career as a pianist, she regularly appears with foremost Czech orchestras on Czech and European stages, she performs solo recitals and records classical music for the Czech Radio. She's performed at the festivals such as Janacek's May, JazzFestBrno, American Spring, or Influencers of resonance.
In collaboration with the visual artist Jan Vala, she has co-authored the CATAPLASM project and has been promoting it within the Patreon donor platform. In the project, Nikol combines the world of classical music with her own work and creates masterclasses, piano lessons for beginners, video clips, and audio-visual projects in which she allows listeners a peek into a musical world and creative process of her own and other people who live by music. Within this project, she works not only as a composer but also as an editor and screenwriter.

JAN & NIKOL
and their cataplasm world
Nikol is a pianist and composer. Jan is a visual artist (and experience designer). You might know them individually from different projects. Here (in their creative world they named cataplasm) – they are putting their heads and hearts together to build something new and challenging. To create space for discussions about interpretation and compositions, to write screenplays, film music videos, make music masterclasses and piano lessons, shoot documentaries. There are many things they have already done and much more things they are passionate to do.
The cataplasm project is self-donated. The main motivation is their love for music, film, and art in general. If you like what Nikol and Jan do, please, subscribe to their cataplasm YouTube channel, share their videos. And if you would like to support them on their creative journey, you can do so by becoming their patron on the platform Patreon.

2021 CONCERTS
August 31, Ostrava – Ceny Jantar
September 29, Prague – Unravel
November 9, České Budějovice – Unravel
November 10, Prague – Nikol Bóková Trio
November 11, Vrchlabí – Nikol Bóková Trio
November 12, Drážkov – Unravel
November 24, JazzFestBrno – Nikol Bóková Trio
November 25, Brno – Solo with Brno Philharmonic Orchestra
November 26, Brno – Solo with Brno Philharmonic Orchestra
December 16, Prague – Nikol Bóková Trio