JOSEF ŽÁK, born in Prague, studied violin at the Prague Conservatoire, at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, and at Hochschule für Musik in Dresden. Since 2011 he specializes in music of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. During the studies of the baroque violin at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris, where he received the master diploma in 2015, he tried to absorb the musical styles of his teachers: P. Bismuth, F. Fernandez, S.-M. Degand, E. Onofri, M. Glodeanu.
Žák plays together with confirmed baroques orchestras and ensembles – Les Arts Florissants (William Christie), Les Talens Lyriques (Christophe Rousset), Matheus (Jean-Christophe Spinosi), Ensemble Correspondances (Sébastien Daucé), Les Musiciens de Saint-Julien (François Lazarewitch), Ensemble Clément Janéquin (Dominique Visse), Opera Fuoco (David Stern), Collegium 1704 (Vaclav Luks), Collegium Marianum (Jana Semeradova) etc.
He is invited to participate as a concertmaster with l’Orchestre de l’Opera Royal de Versailles, PRJCT Amsterdam (Maarten Engeltjes), Les Epopées (Stéphane Fuget), Collegium 1704, Czech Ensemble Baroque.
As soloist and musical leader, he recorded several CDs – Les Epopées (Grands Motets de Lully, volume I, II), PRJCT Amsterdam (Bach Vorgotten Arias), Orchestre de l’Opera Royal (Vivaldi, Pergolesi : Stabat Mater).
In 2016, Josef Žák founds Ensemble Castelkorn and records a CD « Lamentevole » with the violin sonatas of Biber, Schmelzer, Bertali etc.
He is invited as a violin teacher at the Summer Academy of baroque music in Holesov (LŠBH).
Josef Žák studies also the interpretation and conducting go Gregorian chant at Ecole du Choeur Grégorien de Paris (Louis-Marie Vigne).
In 2014-2019, he was the musical leader of Choeur Grégorien de Paris.
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