I am an accordion player, a composer and an improviser. I graduated at the Prague Conservatory at 2012 and also attended the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava, Jaroslav Ježek Conservatory and Atelier Performance at the Faculty of Fine Arts.
“To me, music is a communication channel through which I get to know myself, my fellow musicians and also the author and his/her era. Music is an extension of an ordinary day-to-day reality. It allows me to create new universes and to explore my potential and its limits. It just delights me to play with it. Contemporary music has a certain colourfulness of sounds that fascinates me. It gives me an infinite number of experiences, insights and intellectual challenges.”
At Present
I am currently a member of Radim Hanousek´s project called Dust in the Groove. It serves as a platform where classical and jazz musicians meet to improvise and to interpret Hanousek´s compositions.
My another artistic project called ConTRIOlogy Žaneta, along with a dulcimerist Michal Grombiřík and a siger Jana Vondrů, interprets contemporary music by predominantly Czech authors. These pieces are usually composed to be performed exclusively by the trio.
I also performs regularly with Ensemble Opera Diversa - both as a soloist and a member of the orchestra and Brno Contemporary orchestra. Along with some fifty other improvisators continually participate on a project called PMP Orchestra. This experimental and improvisational orchestra have already interpreted pieces by Anthony Braxton or Roscoa Mitchell. This project runs by courtesy of Prague Music Performance.
I works as a lecturer at the Elementary Art School Kuřim.
Original Projects and Collaborations
In the spring of 2022 I cooperated with Patricia Pažická and CO.LABS collective presented a dance solo performance called NOT A SWANN through my original music and sound.
In a duo with a singer and a voice performer Annabelle Plum, Žaneta released a record called Interference under Ma Records label. The recording mixes composed and improvised parts using a broad spectrum of human voice and accordion sound colours. The intended sound of this recording is based on a usage of extended playing and singing techniques.
In the fall of 2021, during one of the covid lockdowns, I published a textbook for beginners and intermediate called Akordeon vypráví (Accordion Tales). It was illustrated by Mae Sara. Sara also published the textbook via his publishing company Magda.
Together with a composer Hana Foss she also participated on creating the music for a terpsichorean piece Assemblage made by a dance group Me-SA.
Projects
Žaneta Vítová — vocals, accordion
Jana Vondrů — vocals
Radim Hanousek — saxophones, bass clarinet
Martin Opršál — marimba
Jan Přibil — trumpet
Yoram Rosilio — double bass
Jakub Švejnar — drums
This project fuses experimental jazz and contemporary music. Personnel involved have been constantly varying since its founding in 2014. Radim Hanousek´s original music leaves a considerable space for individual and collective improvisation aiming to explore new sound possibilities. A notable number of members of this project are musically versatile. Being functional both in experimental jazz and contemporary music settings, these musicians are able to embrace the duality of jazz expression and timbral precision of the latter.
The project also inquires into new forms of musical expression of texts and even signs. It is done so with the ultimate use of vocal and instrumental techniques.
The ensemble actively cooperates with a Norwegian composer and trumpet player Didrik Ingvaldsen and a Swiss composer and trombone player Roland Dahinden. They also work with visual artists (Natalie Perkof, Olga Piperová, Veronika Vlková, Lenka Pilařová) and dance performers (Orbita, Filigrán).
Michal Gombiřík — dulcimer
Žaneta Vítová — accordion
Jana Vondrů — vocals
ConTRIOlogy was founded in the fall of 2016 on the grounds of Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Brno. The project focuses on an interpretation of contemporary classical music. The trio actively collaborates both with established and freshly emerging Czech and Slovak composers, namely Peter Graham, Radim Hanousek, Ondřej Kyas, Daniel Skála, Michal Wroblevski, Jiří Lukeš et al.
Annabelle Plum — vocals
Žaneta Vítová — accordion
Annabelle Plum & Žaneta Vítová play original music for experimental voice and accordion. Their music is imbued with special sound-painting poetics flawlessly meandering between quotidian occurrences and intense emotions.
Composed parts intertwine with spheres of free improvisation. Using extended techniques of playing their instruments they draw inspiration both from the European tradition and from a diverse world music phenomenon. The singer Annabelle Plum uses her voice ranging from soprano to massive contralto depths in a wide range of colours. The accordionist Žaneta Vítová draws from jazz and contemporary music.
Aside from this project, Annabelle as well as Žaneta build their own respective careers in music. Both perform with renowned orchestras and ensembles in the Czech Republic and beyond. When playing together, their captivating live performances draw their audiences into unknown worlds where feminine fragility and unchained roughness coexist in harmony.
Akordeon vypráví (Acordion Tales)
An accordion textbook Akordeon vypráví (Accordion Tales) is made for beginners and intermediate. Using short or a bit more complex compositions, the author aims to introduce improvisation, sound experimentation and formal looseness to aspiring musicians. She draws from her experience with an interpretation of contemporary music and free improvisation. By using extended techniques of playing, she reflects the ethos of a current professional music scene.
Through short stories and colourful illustrations, the textbook introduces the world of music to children. Essentially it aims to expand young musician´s imagination, playfulness, expression and ability to articulate through improvisation. The textbook challenges tutors and students to experiment. For example, it brings forward teaching techniques that work with a positive reaction to mistakes. Illustrations by Mae Sara.
