Zuzana Gulová

I was born in Prague on a Sunday in 1994. My parents would say I have always had a marked desire to play. It happened to first appear sometime in childhood. After finishing school, this desire was so strong that I left Prague to study recorder performance under Julie Braná at the Conservatory in Pilsen. There, I also completed a Bachelor’s Degree in anthropology and a pedagogical degree in music. I spent one year at Durham University focusing mainly on anthropology through the Erasmus Exchange Program before relocating to Graz to begin a new study in recorder performance at the University of Music and Performing Arts, where my mentors included Andreas Böhlen and Tabea Schwartz. In Graz, I started learning different instruments and grew closer to that exciting playground which is the intersection between early and contemporary music. 

I had the pleasure to be invited to projects such as

2019 - orchester Dolce Vita - “Händel in Rom”

2021 - recreation.Barock under the direction of Sergio Azzolini

and form and be part of different ensembles:

sféra ensemble - sphere full of recorders, overtones, sharing, discovering, singing, discussing

duo Tubes - a collaboration with organist Stjepan Molnar; churches + recorder + organ -> sweet, powerful, plastic, vivid, underestimated! 

ensemble WIND (We’re in “n” dream) - a collaboration with composer Dakota Wayne; question everything .. boundaries of musical performance, new use of old material, the meaning of art, function .. why?

My fascination

Carried along by the most recent sféra programme, I've been enjoying a great deal of the “earlier” side of early music. Reading and collecting new information mostly about the 15th century feels good. Going through various manuscripts over and over, trying to figure out how the particular notation works, trying to sing it, play it, understand it, connect it with places, personal stories, and historical events is nerdy fun but it brings joy. And with each new information and gained knowledge come many questions and doubts which require more information and so it goes on. 

Thanks to my anthropological studies I have not only learned how to be aware of our "cultural glasses" that are shaping how we perceive reality, but I also discovered my affection towards human remains and became interested in the phenomenon of a rite of passage.

The bones of animals feature myriad little curves, protuberances and openings, which, taken together, form ornaments that recall gothic architecture, medieval and renaissance manuscripts, and the music of that time. Such artifacts contain long-forgotten stories, and we, although firmly embedded in our contemporary culture and time, can become the story-tellers. 

Current interests:

musical epitaphs between 1377 - 1521

Alexander Agricola 

Guillaume Du Fay