Vartan Agopian is the owner and director of our piano school. In addition to organizing concerts and teaching sessions, he provides quality instruction for students. He not only takes care of the teaching of our students, but also the smooth running of lessons throughout the school. He recruits new students, building and shaping the vision of our school. He strives to create an environment for piano instruction that is joyful, stimulating, and fun for our students, while providing the highest quality of instruction by our instructors. Vartan is originally from Lebanon, where he graduated from the Lebanese National Conservatory of Music in Beirut, as well as Haigazian University, where he majored in Educational Psychology. He then studied music education and piano at the Faculty of Education of Charles University in Prague, where he received his doctorate. He is fluent in 5 languages, and besides being a pianist, he is also a conductor and composer. He has performed in many European countries, in the Arab world, as well as in Asia. Since 2014 he has been living in the Czech Republic and teaching at Charles University and the University of New York in Prague, in addition to accompanying the Czech boys’ choir Boni Pueri. He also performs concerts with his wife, who is a violinist, and together they are raising their daughter. Vartan teaches piano at our school in Czech and English. He focuses on intermediate to very advanced students.

Martina is the school assistant, whom you will meet most often in e-mail communication, she organizes introductory lessons for our new applicants and will help you with the application to our school.

Adam studied piano play at the Conservatoire Jána Levoslava Bellu in Banska Bystrica in the piano class of Mgr. Aleš Solárik and at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague in the piano class of a famous Czech pianist Boris Krajny. Adam won several times the title of the laureate of piano competitions such as Competition of Students of the Slovakian Consevatoires, Forum per tasti, International piano competition Beyond Music-Huesca. He performed in Slovakia, Czech rep., France, Spain, Poland and USA. Adam pursues teaching and charity work by playing in beneficial concerts.

Amálie Vajík Pivoňková graduated from the general grammar school in Klášterec nad Ohří at the same time as the conservatory in Teplice, where she studied piano with Mgr. Hana Turková. During her studies at the conservatory, she began to study piano at the Faculty of Education of Charles University with doc. MgA. Libuše Tichá, Ph.D. After graduating from the conservatory, she began her studies at HAMU under Prof. MgA František Malý. She is currently completing her Bachelor’s degree at HAMU. In 2022 she won the 2nd prize at the Interpretation Competition of the Czech Pedagogical Faculties with International Participation. In 2023 she won the 2nd prize at the International Piano Competition for the Gustav Mahler Prize. She is currently improving her English and German language skills so that she can also teach in these languages.

She has been teaching piano to children and adults of all levels since 2017.

Natália Lukáčová graduated from the Faculty of Education of Charles University with a Master’s degree in Piano Performance and Music Education. She interned at art schools, music high school and also taught piano and music education in kindergarten. As part of her studies she gave piano recitals and performed as a soloist and chamber musician. She is a member of the Charles University orchestra, where she is not only a pianist but also a violinist. In addition to teaching, she is also an accompanist and is part of the team of the online Eva Lorenc Piano School, where she records herself giving feedback to students on their piano performances. She is equipped with two foreign languages, namely Italian and English. She wants to continuously develop and push herself further in both pedagogy and piano playing. She enjoys teaching piano immensely, and she passes on her kind professional approach to her many students in our school, who enthusiastically attend her lessons.

I come from Brno, and I have been playing piano since I was five years old. I studied at the conservatory in Brno with Mgr. Renata Bialasová and then at the Janáček Academy of Performing Arts in the class of prof. Alena Vlasáková and prof. Jan Jiraský. Within the ERASMUS programme I also studied in Latvia at Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music with prof. Jānis Maļeckis.

I was brought to music by my parents, who work at JAMU, my father prof. Miloslav Jelinek teaches double bass and my mother doc. Marcela Jelínková works at the string department as a piano accompanist. However, it is not only my parents who led me to musical education, my grandmother was a long-time opera soloist at the National Moravian-Silesian Theatre in Ostrava, my grandfather worked as a conductor there. From an early age I performed on concert stages, premiering the compositions “Marcelce”, “Ziměnky”, and “With my father” by the Brno composer Jiří Matys. While studying at JAMU I collaborated with double bass students and my sister, who is a pianist and singer. Together with my family I performed at concerts at the Ignaz Pleyel Museum in Ruppersthal (Austria). In 2015 I participated in the recording of the CD of the Brno Double Bass Orchestra, which consists of 20 double bass players under the direction of my father.

I started my teaching practice at the František France Elementary School in Slavkov u Brna during my studies at the conservatory. Before coming to the academy I also assisted at the Piano Methodology Centre at JAMU, where I had the opportunity to attend lectures and auditions.

In my lessons I can pass on to my pupils a wealth of experience stemming from family tradition and, above all, the excellent methodological experience I gained during my studies with the renowned piano teacher Prof. Vlasáková. All with insight and love for music.

Jakob graduated from a music high school in Germany and from 2020 he is studying piano at the Faculty of Education of Charles University in Prague. He looks forward to connecting and working at the piano with children and adults and making piano playing a fun and educational experience for his students. He speaks fluent English and German, he also learns to speak Czech.

Kateřina started playing piano at the age of 8 at the Basic Art School in Louny, where
she stayed until her final year. At the Elementary School, she started singing and playing the recorder at the age of 4 and also the guitar at a later age.
Then she entered the conservatory in Teplice in the field of popular singing, but she did not give up the piano.
With the help of her professors and partly through her own diligence and determination, she attended piano classes, concerts and, seminars. Not only that, she continued to develop her piano skills and knowledge, this time in the context of more popular music.
She successfully graduated from the Conservatory in 2022 and since then she has been a student at the Faculty of Education of the Charles University in Music Education and English Language.
Music has been her lifelong passion, whether it is piano or other instruments and singing. Her goal is to
to pass on the love and joy of music to as many people as possible and to show them the happiness that music brings, whether it is produced or received.
Since 2019, she has been teaching piano at the Ústí nad Labem Elementary School and also gives private piano lessons
and music theory.

Jakub Tököly is a Slovak pianist, composer, arranger and teacher. He comes from a family with a deep musical tradition, which is why he decided to study classical and jazz music at JAMU and Musik und Kunst in Vienna. During his extensive concert career he has performed all over Europe (Switzerland, Spain, France, Belgium, Germany, Italy …).
He is a permanent member of Gustav Brom Big Band, Miroslav Hloucal Q, Renata Drössler, Josef Fečo Jazz Family, Ľubomír Gašpar Cimbal Project, Július Baroš Q, Lache Manuša or the Forman Brothers Theatre, and as a guest artist he collaborates with the Czech National Symphony Orchestra or JazzDock Orchestra.
Throughout his career he has collaborated with important personalities such as: Antonio Sanchez (MEX) Joan Orleans (USA) , Vince Mendoza (USA), Gabor Bolla (HU), Vladimir Kostadinovic (SRB), Juraj Bartoš (SK), Piotr Barron (PL), Steven Mercurio (USA), Ondřej Štveráček (CZ), Ron Affif (USA), Yvone Sanchez (PL), Ossian Roberts (UK), Andy Schofield (UK) and others.
In addition to his concert activities, he teaches jazz piano at many music schools.