Robert Kolinsky

Robert Kolinsky, born 1970 in Solothurn, pianist, founder and artistic director of the Martinů Festtage and filmmaker.
Studied at the music academies in Basel (soloist diploma) and Prague, with Laszlo Gyimesi, Peter Efler and Jan Panenka (Suk-Trio). Courses with György Kurtag and Witold Lutoslawski. Studied fortepiano at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis with Jean Goverts and conducting master class at Domaine Forget in Canada with Otto-Werner Müller. 
His chamber music partners in recitals have included Josef Suk, Peter-Lukas Graf, Veronika Hagen, Bettina Boller, Dimitri Ashkenazy, Alison Balsom, Sasha Rozhdestvensky, Antonio Meneses and the jazz pianist Enrico Pieranunzi. Other partners in chamber music concerts were Peter Sadlo, Heinz Holliger, Kolja Blacher, Christian Poltéra, Alexander Janiczek, Antje Weithaas, Magali Mosnier, Thomas Demenga, Patricia Kopatchinskaja, as well as the Keller Quartet, the Martinů -, Emperor -, Amar - or the Doric Quartet, among others. He has also accompanied the singers Bruno de Sá, Martina Janková and the jazz singer Veronika Harcsa. His chamber orchestras include the Kremerata Baltica and the Camerata Bern, and he has also performed under conductors such as Gustavo Dudamel, Sir Roger Norrington and Robert Ticciati. With Vladimir Ashkenazy, Robert Kolinsky recorded a CD of piano concertos by Bohuslav Martinů on the Finnish label Ondine.Robert Kolinsky has participated in numerous projects recorded or produced and broadcast by Swiss Radio SRF 2 Kultur and Swiss Television, by Deutschlandfunk Kultur or Euroarts.
The Martinů Festtage in Basel has taken place annually in autumn since 1995 and has been under the patronage of conductor Jakub Hrůša, Federal Councillor Alain Berset, as well as the current president Zuzana Čaputová. Previous patrons included Václav Havel and Madeleine Albright.
For the 125th anniversary of the birth of the composer Bohuslav Martinů, Robert Kolinsky produced a picture audio book "Who is the most powerful on earth" for young people in German and Czech with the Nord-Süd Verlag publishing house, which was nominated for the Leopold Prize in Cologne. 
As author and director, Robert Kolinsky made a documentary film about the director and Oscar winner Jiří Menzel "To Make a Comedy is no Fun", which premiered at the Solothurn Film Festival 2016 and won the audience award at the festival in Freistadt. Miloš Forman, Ken Loach, Emir Kusturica, Vera Chytilová, István Szabo and Julia Jentsch, among others, appeared in the film. He is also involved, together with trigon-film, in the restoration of Jiří Menzel's films, which are released in festivals and cinemas in German- and French-speaking countries in the form of retrospectives and on DVD.
Robert Kolinsky is currently very involved in the work of Miloslav Kabeláč. For example, Deutschlandfunk Kultur, in cooperation with the Austrian label Capriccio, is recording the composer's complete chamber music works, which will be released on CD in spring 2022. The musicians and his chamber music partners include Markéta Janoušková, Jan Vogler, Stefan Dohr, Albrecht Mayer, and Robert Kolinsky's wife, the saxophonist Kathi Wagner. Miloslav Kabeláč's children's choirs with the Children's Choir of the Deutsche Oper Berlin under Christian Lindhorst are also currently in progress. In planning for 2023 are all of Miloslav Kabeláč's symphonies with the ORF Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin under the direction of Jakub Hrůša.
Robert Kolinsky is committed to the publication of the complete works of Miloslav Kabeláč and - in the meantime also as president of the Miloslav Kabeláč Foundation - is looking for cooperation partners and patrons.