About me

Jan Čižmář is versatile performer on plucked instruments, focusing on historical lutes and early guitars. He is regularly performing with groups such as Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, 18th century orchestra, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (OAE), Ensemble baroque de Limoges, Rotterdam Philharmony Orchestra, Collegium 1704, Nederlands Blazers Ensemble, Ensemble Elyma, Arte dei Suonatori, La Sfera Armoniosa, Vox Luminis, Florilegium and many others in the early music field at concerts across Europe, in USA and in Asia. He has worked under conductors such as Frans Brüggen, Christopher Hogwood, Giovanni Antonini, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Paul Goodwin, Rachel Podger, Ashley Solomon, Václav Luks, Christoph Coin, Gabriel Garrido, Ed Spanjaard, Christina Pluhar, Rachel Podger and others and is often invited to participate in opera productions (Covent Garden, London; Estates Theatre, Prague). He performs as a soloist with renaissance and baroque repertoire as well as with numerous chamber groups.

After completing his guitar and musicology studies in his native Brno, Czech Republic, Jan Čižmář was at the Royal College of Music in London studying classical guitar and later lute with Jakob Lindberg. Following were his studies with Nigel North, Joachim Held, Mike Fentross and Christina Pluhar at the Royal Conservatory in Den Haag.

In his non-early music past he was busy as a rock, jazz and later as a classical guitarist. He toured Europe with New York production of Jesus Christ Superstar as a rock guitarist and has often appeared on stage in theatrical/dance productions of the Lindsay Kemp Company and Leine & Roebana a.o.

He was the founder and editor-in-chief of the Czech guitar and lute magazine Kytara and regularly contributes to other musical periodicals. He has also worked as a musical editor for several publishing houses including Bärenreiter and is busy researching, editing and performing music from central European archives. 

Jan has been teaching at various summer schools and is teaching lute at MUK Wien, the Academy of Music "Karol Szymanowski" in Katowice, Poland and at JAMU Brno. In the past he also taught at the Academy of Ancient Music, Masaryk University in Brno, Czech Republic.