Jana Boušková


Jana Boušková is a Czech harpist and pedagogue. She has been the principal harpist of the Czech Philharmonic since 2005. Boušková is also a professor at the Royal College of Music in London, the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, the Erasmus Brussels University of Applied Sciences and Arts, and the Royal Conservatory of Brussels.

Early life and education

Jana Boušková was born in Prague on 27 September 1970. She is a daughter of the flutist Jiří Boušek and the harpist. Boušková began playing the harp at a young age, and gave her first concert when she was seven years old.
Boušková attended the Prague Conservatory and the University of Ostrava, where she studied under her mother Libuše. She graduated from the University of Ostrava in 1998, after years of distance learning. Boušková recalled in 2017 that her mother was more demanding of her than other students, and that retrospectively she is grateful to her for this. She also attended classes given by Alice Giles in Bayreuth, and studied under Susann McDonald at Indiana University Bloomington on a Fulbright scholarship.

Music career

Boušková won the Maria Damm Rensch Prize at the 1st USA International Harp Competition in 1989. Three years later, she won the gold medal at the 2nd USA International Harp Competition. She later became the official soloist of the harp maker Lyon & Healy, and plays the Lyon & Healy Style 30 concert harp that she received as a prize for winning the 2nd USA International Harp Competition. Also in 1992, Boušková took second place at the 11th Israel International Harp Competition. She won first prize at the Grand Prix Concours International de Musique de Chambre de Paris in 1998, and the Torneo Internazionale di Musica in 1999. Boušková also received the Czech Republic's 1996 Talent of the Year Award and the 2002 Czech Music Council Award, in recognition of her representation of Czechs on an international stage.
As a soloist, Boušková has performed with the Czech Philharmonic, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, and the MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra, among others. She was chosen to premiere Sergiu Natra's Sonata in One Movement in 1999. Other works Boušková has premiered include Ravi Shankar's Sonata for Cello and Harp alongside Mstislav Rostropovich, and Benjamin Yusupov's Concerto for Flute, Violin, Viola, Harp and Orchestra alongside Maxim Vengerov and others.
Boušková was harp professor at the Prague Conservatory from 1993 to 2012. In 2005, she became professor at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels and the Erasmus Brussels University of Applied Sciences and Arts. Boušková was appointed professor at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague in 2007, and took up the role of professor at the Royal College of Music in London in 2019. She has also taught at Indiana University Bloomington and the Geneva University of Music.

Personal life

Boušková is married to Jiří Kubita, a violinist of the Czech Philharmonic. As of 2010, the couple have two sons, and both children play the violin.

Discography

Boušková has contributed to numerous recordings for Czech and international record labels. The following list is compiled from Boušková's official website.