NIKOL BÓKOVÁ

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.

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 Michal Wierzgon, 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."

​

"My current greatest passion is to combine classical repertoire with my own compositions, so the audience can listen to classical pieces of great composers and my own pieces for a trio during one concert. I feel exceptional depth and complexity in this possibility."

BIO

Nikol Bóková is a musician dedicated to many genres of music. She particularly works 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.