celtic night performers

ZENKL & KOZÁK BAND
Keltská noc Zenkl and Kozák Band

Radim Zenkl:

Ondra Kozák:

ZENKL & KOZÁK BAND

CZECH REPUBLIC

Czech-American Radim Zenkl founded this musical duo in the fall of 2020 with Ondra Kozák as his European concert project. Both musicians are excellent world-class multi-instrumentalists with many awards, but also excellent singers, and in their performance, in addition to great instrumental passages, there is also their great harmonic singing. Listeners can look forward to original melodies and songs in the style of Irish music and bluegrass, as well as traditional pieces in special arrangements.

Radim Zenkl – mandolin, flutes, didgeridoo, vocals; Ondra Kozák – guitar, violin, dobro, bass, vocals

Radim Zenkl – multi-instrumentalist, mandolin and flute player, composer and instructor. Originally from Bohemia, he started playing the mandolin at thirteen and discovered bluegrass by listening to records that were smuggled into the then communist country. The sound of the bluegrass mandolin was the spark that started the decision to pursue music at the age of seventeen and subsequently led Radim to flee Czechoslovakia in the summer of 1989 (three months before the fall of communism) and settle in the San Francisco area of California. In 1992 he won the US National Mandolin Championship in Winfield, KS. He invented his own master technique, which in America is named after him - tyv. "Zenkl-style" in which one mandolin sounds like two. In addition to solo performances, Radim collaborates with top musicians of the American acoustic music scene and has played in duos with artists such as Tim O'Brien, Peter Rowan, David Grisman, Tony Trischka, Chris Thile (in a quartet), Scott Nygaard and others. He has recorded nine CDs, including a CD of improvised duets with Tony Rice, Jerry Douglas, Bela Fleck, Mike Marshall and others (Strings & Wings, Shanachie, 1996), and has appeared on over eighty other recordings.

Ondra Kozák – multi-instrumentalist, singer, composer, music teacher, director and organizer. He is mainly devoted to acoustic music: bluegrass, folk, new acoustics. As a guitarist, he recorded two solo albums (Ataman, 2014; Overtones, 2019) and won the title "Guitarist of the Year" 5 times in the Poll of the Bluegrass Association of the Czech Republic. He participated in more than 20 studio albums with various groups, with which he won the prestigious European Band of the Year competition 4 times at the French La Roche Bluegrass Festival. He has collaborated on various occasions with major figures in the bluegrass music scene such as Mike Marshall, Dan Crary, Mike Compton, Tony Furtado, Beppe Gambetta, Dale Ann Bradley, Steve Gulley, Cia Cherryholmes and others. He organizes music workshops, prepares podcasts for musicians, founded an online music workshop and is the author of several educational publications.