Suchoň quintet
Klára KUBRICZKÁ PŘECECHTĚLOVÁ
flute
Mário ŠEBEŇ
oboe
Bibiána BIENIKOVÁ
clarinet
Ida CHOVANOVÁ
bassoon
Nazar SPAS
french horn
THE SUCHOŇ QUINTET takes its name from one of Slovakia’s most important twentieth-century composers, Eugen Suchoň (1908 – 1993), the founder of Slovak National Modernism. It consists of the leading wind players of the Slovak Sinfonietta but was formed even before the orchestra’s existence, in the early 1960s. At the same time, the musicians were still students at Žilina’s music conservatory. As the oldest chamber ensemble within the Slovak Sinfonietta Žilina, the wind quintet has performed many concerts throughout all of Slovakia, as well as abroad, has given concerts for children and young people, at gallery exhibitions, and has been heard throughout the world at radio recordings.
In 1996, the Suchoň Quintet performed in the Austria Centre in Vienna for the International Congress of Unisys, at which such world firms as IBM and others took part. In October 1996, the Suchoň Quintet played Divertimento for Wind Quintet by Dr. Ľudovít Rajter, on the occasion of his 90th birthday, in the Fatra House of Art in Žilina. In April 1998, the group performed at the 2nd Festival de Manaus in Brazil. In May 2004, the ensemble took part in the international 49th Košice Music Spring Festival, and in 2006 and 2007, the ensemble played at the concert tours in French Picardie. The ensemble has cooperated with famous Slovak pianists Ladislav Fančovič and Tomáš Nemec.
For most of its career, the ensemble was known as the Wind Quintet of the Slovak Sinfonietta Žilina. However, in 1998, which would have marked the composer´s 90th birthday, it was renamed the Suchoň Quintet, an honour bestowed by Marián Suchoň, the composer’s son and director of the Suchoň Foundation. The year 2008 (100th anniversary) was also officially designated by the Slovak Ministry of Culture as the Eugen Suchoň Year. In that year, the Suchoň Quintet performed Eugen Suchoň’s Works in many Slovak towns, in the Slovak Philharmonic Concert Hall in Bratislava, in the Fatra House of Arts in Žilina, the Slovak cultural institute in Budapest, Békéscsaba, Maribor, etc.
Since 2003, the ensemble has cooperated with a famous young pianist, and laureate of the Prague Spring 2004 and European Union Piano Competition, Matej Arendárik, with whom the Suchoň Quintet recorded a CD for Music Master. In January and February 2015, the Suchoň Quintet and pianist Michiko Otaki successfully toured the USA, performing 20 concerts in 11 US states in cultural centres such as Jackson, Augusta, and Atlanta.
In January 2018, they performed at the Slovak Embassy in London on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the Slovak Republic. Another significant moment in the history of the Suchoň Quintet was their performance at the ceremony of the Minister of Culture Awards for the year 2023, which took place on 21 November 2024.
Klára Kubriczká Přecechtělová (1995, Přerov) studied at the Brno Conservatory in the flute class of Bozena Růžičková. She has participated and placed in many competitions (36th Czech Conservatory Competition in Wind Instruments: Honourable Mention, Youth and Bohuslav Martinů: Golden Band, Prize for Interpretation of Bohuslav Martinů and Jury Award for Outstanding Musical Performance, Pardubice Winds: 2nd Prize). In the school year 2016-2017, she was a scholarship holder of the Czech Music Fund Foundation. In 2017, she completed her studies at the conservatory with a graduation concert with the Brno Conservatory Orchestra (Vilém Blodek: Concerto for Flute and Orchestra). She is currently a doctoral student at the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava under the pedagogical guidance of Dagmar Zsapkova. She regularly attends various courses, workshops and master classes (P. Bernold, R. Winn, R. Schmeiser, D. Formisano,…). As an orchestral player, she cooperates with the Symphony Orchestra of the Academy of Performing Arts, the Gustav Mahler Philharmonic Orchestra and others. She has twice won the All-School Competition of the Academy of Performing Arts and has appeared as a soloist with the State Philharmonic Košice and the Slovak Philharmonic (Francois Borne: Fantaisie Brillante sur Carmen).
Since January 2020, she has been the first flautist of the Slovak Sinfonietta Žilina. In 2020, she will perform solo with him at the online Christmas concert conducted by Maroš Potokár, in October 2021 at a subscription concert in Žilina, and at the Beskid Classics festival in Bielsko-Biała, Poland, led by conductor Martin Leginus. She also performed at the Slovak Sinfonietta Žilina benefit concert for Ukraine in March 2022 and the Slovak Sinfonietta Christmas concert in 2023. She has been a member of the chamber ensemble Suchoň Quintet since 2020.
Mário Šebeň (1990, Ilava) began his musical studies by playing the recorder at the Primary Art School in Nová Dubnica under the guidance of his mother, Oľga Šebeňová, a graduate of oboe playing at the Žilina Conservatory. From 2006 to 201,2 he studied oboe at the Žilina Conservatory in the class of Milada Hriankova. He completed his studies at the conservatory with the Slovak Sinfonietta Žilina under the direction of O. Dohnányi and performed a concerto in F minor by Július Rietz (2012). He continued his studies from 2012 to 2016 at the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava in the class of Petr Kosorín and completed his studies with the concerto by B. Martinů with the Slovak Sinfonietta Žilina under the direction of K. Kevický.
In 2010, he took part in the MEMA international performance courses in Poprad with Andreas Helm from Vienna. In 2010, he won the 1st prize and the Music Fund Prize for his Sonatina for Oboe and Piano by Pavel Krška at the Competition of Slovak Conservatory Students. In 2012, he won the 1st prize again at the same competition and performed as the absolute winner at the 22nd Central European Music Festival. Among other public performances, in 2010 he appeared in the Youth Studio of Radio Devín. In 2013 – 2022, he was a member of the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra (SOSR), and in January 2022, he became the 1st oboist of the Slovak Sinfonietta Žilina. He performed as a soloist at the Slovak Sinfonietta 2022 Christmas concerts, where, under the direction of Simon Chalk, he performed the concerto in C minor A. Marcello and Gabriel’s oboe by E. Morricone. In 2023, he performed together with other members of the Suchoň Quintet in Mozart’s Concertante Symphony in E flat major (dir. Rastislav Štúr) and 2024 as a soloist at the Christmas concerts of the City of Žilina (dir. Adam Sedlický). He has been a member of the Slovak Sinfonietta Žilina chamber ensemble Suchoň Quintet since 2022.
Bibiána Bieniková (1971, Žilina) studied at the Conservatory in Žilina with her father, Pavel Bienik and at the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava with Jozef Luptáčik. She won the 3rd prize (1990) and the 2nd prize (1992) at the competition for students of Slovak conservatories. Twice, she was an active participant in international performance courses in Brno. During her studies at the Academy of Performing Arts, she performed several times as a soloist with orchestra and wind quintet. In 1993, she won the 1st prize at the Yamaha scholarship competition. Since 1994, she has been the 1st clarinettist of the Slovak Sinfonietta Žilina, and since 2020, she has been the head of its wind section. She still regularly performs with the Slovak Sinfonietta Žilina as a soloist (Stamic, Crusel, Mozart, Weber, Gašparík, Strauss, Danzi, Cikker) under the baton of important conductors such as L. Svárovský, T. Koutník, O. Weder, A. Schwinck, O. Dohnányi, M. Katz, G. Oskamp, A. Sedlický, M. Leginus, F. Macek and others.
In double concerts, she collaborated with J. Figura, C. Šikula, K. Přecechtělová Kubrická, L. A. Requejo, J. Luptáčik, J. Hlaváč, J. Mazán, I. Chovanová, A. Vessová and others. In chamber projects she performed with pianists Ivan Gajan and Peter Pažický, among others, at the Mirbach Palace in Bratislava (2001). Since 1994, she has been a member of the Suchoň Quintet, with whom she toured the USA for a month in 2015. She is the holder of the prestigious Slovak Savings Bank Award “Zlatá nota 2003”. Since 2003, she has been teaching clarinet at the Žilina Conservatory.
Ida Chovanová (1986, Bratislava) studied at the Bratislava Conservatory in the classes of Marián Hlavačka and Josef Rotter. In 2004 and 2006, she won the 1st prize in solo bassoon at the Competition of Slovak Conservatory Students and in 2007, the 1st prize in chamber music as a member of a wind quintet. As the absolute winner of this competition, she performed at the Central European Music Festival 2004. She continued her studies at the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava in the class of Roman Mešina, 1st bassoonist of the Slovak Philharmonic. In 2004, she actively participated in master classes in Locarno and Ascona (Switzerland) with Gabor Meszaros, and in 2012, she attended master classes with Sergio Azzolini in Poprad.
Since 2013, she has been the 1st bassoonist of the Slovak Sinfonietta Žilina and in the chamber ensemble Suchoň Quintet, with which she toured the USA for a month (2015). She also performed in the European Union project Transnational Chamber Music Group with members of the Silesian Philharmonic Katowice (2014). With the Slovak Sinfonietta Žilina, she has performed solo in Mozart’s Concertante Symphony in E flat major (dir. M. Katz, 2016), in R. Strauss’s Duet-concertino (dir. S. Chalk, 2017, together with B. Bieniková), in Mozart’s Concerto in F major (dir. M. Leginus, 2019), in Mozart’s Concertante Symphony in E flat major (dir. Rastislav Štúr, 2023), etc. She has been a member of the Suchoň Quintet since 2014.
Nazar Spas (1992) was born in Lviv, Ukraine. He studied French horn at the Ukrainian National Music Academy of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky in Kyiv, graduating in 2016. During his studies, he was a soloist and a member of several ensembles and orchestras. In 2009-2011 he was a member of the Ternopil Philharmonic Orchestra, in 2012-2015 a member of the Kyiv City Academic Theatre of Opera and Ballet for Children and Youth, in 2015-2017 a member of the Presidential Orchestra of Ukraine in Kyiv, and in 2017-2019 the 1st horn player in the Lviv Philharmonic Orchestra (INSO Lviv Philharmonic Orchestra).
In 2019, he became the 2nd player on the French horn, and in 2020, he was promoted to the position of the 1st player on the French horn in the Slovak Sinfonietta Žilina based on the audition of the Slovak Sinfonietta. In 2022, he performed at a chamber benefit concert in aid of war-affected Ukraine and successfully performed with the Slovak Sinfonietta Žilina in the subscription cycle under the baton of M. Leginus in Concerto for French Horn and Orchestra No. 2 in F. A. Rosetti. In 2023, he performed Mozart’s Concertante Symphony in E flat major KV 297b and Telemann’s Concerto for Two French Horns in D at the Slovak Sinfonietta Christmas Concerts 2023. He is also a teacher at the Žilina Conservatory. He is currently working on a Concerto for French horn and orchestra by the internationally acclaimed young Slovak composer Haimoni Balgava, which will be given its world premiere in the spring of 2026. He has been a member of the Suchoň Quintet since 2019.