My musical year 2025

I haven’t even had time to recap last year, and I could already be writing stories about this year. But I want to record the most interesting moments of 2025 for myself, because music has once again allowed me to experience things, meet people, and visit places that I would never have dreamed of without it. And I’d like to share them with you. Not to brag, but because I believe that music and sharing it improves people’s lives (and, by extension, the world). At least my happiness is strongly shaped by music and the sharing spirit of the people who create it.

• I played chansons and folk music on the violin with ToPinQui at the legendary Kosodrevina Winter Music Camp in Slovakia, and also a beautiful concert with Loes Bluegrass Trio in the smallest hall I have ever performed in – the AL Iksír theater in Prague.

• Thanks mainly to the great efforts of my musical partner Radim Zenkl, I obtained a US work visa so that I could legally teach and perform there.

• I converted the entire database of several hundred tablatures on the ATAmusic website to a new format.

• I devoted myself to preparing new songs for my band New Aliquot and organizing ATAmusic workshops, which is something that keeps me busy all year round anyway.

• I started filming and writing a long-planned course on mandolin accompaniment.

• We released a three-part dobro lesson with Heinrich Novák (free on YouTube).

• I played, discussed, and did sound engineering at the European Bluegrass Summit in Prague.

• I taught guitar at the Barcelona Bluegrass Camp, where we also played several concerts with Lluís Gómez, Maribel Rivero, legendary mandolinist John Reischman, and my fiddle-chop guru Casey Driessen.

• I taught for the first time at an American music workshop – online for now: Fiddle Hell Online.

• We played with Víťa Troníček and BG Session as guests at the annual concert of the ToPinQui trio at Parník in Ostrava – an iconic club for me, where I absorbed quality music from around the world as a kid.

• The tenth anniversary of Zlatohorská hudební horečka (Zlaté Hory Music Fever) took place in Zlaté Hory – a music workshop for guitar, mandolin, dobro, and bass players.

• New Aliquot had a joint concert with the Malina Brothers in Děhylov, and Radim Zenkl and I went to the last edition of the EWOB festival in the Netherlands.

• The eighth edition of the violin and banjo workshop Jesenický Shuffle took place in Rejvíz in the Jeseníky Mountains.

• I completed a three-hour video course with tablature for mandolin accompaniment in bluegrass, country, and folk music.

    • At the 53rd Banjo Jamboree, Ralph Schut, Erik Banič, and I accompanied five-string banjo legend Bill Evans and his wife Babi (video). For the nineteenth time, I also organized workshops there and, for the second time, prepared the entire program.

• In Maryville, Tennessee (USA), I taught guitar for a week at the world’s largest bluegrass workshop – Steve Kaufman’s Acoustic Kamp (I write more about SKAK here). After that, Radim Zenkl and I played several concerts, including at the legendary Station Inn in Nashville with various guests (e.g., Jana and Stephen Mougin, Ronnie McCoury).

• With New Aliquot, we played at the “Slovak Telluride” – the Bluegrass Evening festival in Horná Poruba.

• Radim Zenkl and I performed at the Rotterdam Bluegrass Festival and in several Czech cities: Nový Jičín, Pozlovice, Kroměříž, Frenštát pod Radhoštěm, Moravská Třebová, and Sázava.

• I launched the ATAmusic PRASÁTKO fund to support young musicians.

• I recorded a simplified guide to building a three-part harmony.

• The magnificent backdrop of the castle in Blansko and Bouzov Castle created a wonderful atmosphere for the concerts of New Aliquot and Víťa Troníček & BG Session. However, the most beautiful performances of the entire season, with an amazing reception from fans, took place at the Grenna Bluegrass Festival in Sweden with New Aliquot and at the first Water Sound Bluegrass and Roots Festival in the Orkney Islands, Scotland, with Radim Zenkl. More about my musical summer here.

• A spontaneous meeting between New Aliquot and banjo player David Benda at one of the workshops led to a collaboration that will culminate in 2026 during the band’s tenth anniversary celebrations. However, we already played together at the end of summer 2025 in Brno and Velký Týnec.

• Radim Zenkl and I recorded the program Cvrlikání (Chirping) for TV Noe.

• I organized the 7th annual Gill Vocal Workshop for singers.

• Radim Zenkl and I had a short tour in Germany, taught at Adiaha Bluegrass Camp, and led a vocal workshop in Schönau im Schwarzwald.

• Over 40 guitarists participated in the second annual Kytara na férovku workshop in Zlaté Hory.

• We worked on a new joint repertoire for the New Aliquot + David Benda project.

November 2025

December 2025