I need to be an excellent instance for different Roma kids, says the profitable Czech musician – Seznam Zprávy

The pianist and composer Tomáš Kačo established himself in lots of international locations around the globe after learning on the prestigious Berklee Faculty of Music in Boston. After a dream come true – live shows in Rudolfinum and Carnegie Corridor – he has different targets forward of him.

When he was fifteen and residing with an enormous household in Nové Jičín, his dad and mom did not even need to let him go to Ostrava to check on the conservatory – they are saying he would not go he’s wild. Even right this moment, when he lives in Los Angeles together with his spouse and two young children on the age of thirty-seven, his dad and mom will not be at peace.

“The dad and mom are nonetheless the identical. Sadly, they haven’t any alternative, they’ve to just accept that I’m very far-off. Once we say, they at all times ask me to return dwelling to Nové Jičín or a minimum of nearer to them,” stated Tomáš Kačo firstly of the interview, which is a part of the Seznam Zpráv undertaking A gallery of personalities.

Though the dad and mom see how effectively their son did in his profession and the way he managed to interrupt out of an setting that’s typically nonetheless affected by racism, not many issues occur to them, based on their son: “I assume they cannot settle for it. within the full breadth of what I needed to undergo, to the place I got here and the way it all suits collectively. There are lots of issues they do not even know.’

After learning on the Ostrava Conservatory and the Prague Academy of Music, Tomáš Kačo was one of many few Czechs to attend the celebrated Berklee School of Music in Boston. In two years, he studied right here what different individuals often handle in 4 years, he met a well-liked singer and songwriter, whom he later married and so they settled in Los Angeles . As we speak he works there as a band director in one of many native church buildings, writing music for it, recording and performing live shows everywhere in the world.

Now he was within the Czech Republic for 3 weeks, the place he had a live performance line known as My Songbook, the place he performs – and infrequently with a powerful improvised half – well-known compositions reminiscent of Oči černé, Holubí dům no Dej mi véch svo lášky. “The tour program is organized from songs from tune books I, tune. I selected them on goal as a result of I’ve excellent recollections of it, I discovered all of the songs in my childhood. By some means it caught with me and I nonetheless prefer it,” defined Tomáš Kačo.

He desires to incorporate the well-known songs that many Czechs sing at campfires in his live shows in America and elsewhere on this planet: “I believe he’ll prefer it them there too.”

Even whereas learning at a college in Prague, Tomáš Kačo was a fan of classical music and jazz, he was “principally essential” of different kinds, as he says. “Then in America I found the sweetness and depth of pop music. And I discovered what I used to be lacking out on. It freed a few of my musician ego, which each and every musician has and often fights quite a bit with, even when he will not admit it. “

His model combines Roma, jazz and widespread music. Within the reference to the final tour with Czech songs, he says: “These tunes can take us again in time. That is the fantastic thing about music. I wish to invite you on a journey by means of time collectively, the place we could have a spot for our desires.”

“There are nonetheless an infinity of them,” answered Tomáš Kačo. “For instance, my dream is to win a Grammy sooner or later. Or launch an orchestral file. Or taking part in with the Berlin Philharmonic… There are literally lots of them.” As a result of his earlier desires – learning within the USA, live shows on the Rudolfinum and probably the most well-known music halls on this planet, the Carnegie Corridor in New York – have already come true, he has little doubt that they’ll come true as effectively.

“When an individual has a aim in entrance of him and lets them circulation, and to work actually and with an excellent coronary heart, I consider that his paths will take him there.”

Tomáš Kačo additionally desires to be an excellent instance for different Roma kids. He himself says that the racism he skilled within the Czech Republic ended for him when he flew to the US 9 years in the past. “I by no means occurred there,” he says.

When she visits the Czech Republic, she organizes lectures for Roma kids and tries to encourage them together with her story: “I believe it is good for youngsters to have an instance in entrance of them who’re from their ranks and got here from nothing, from a poor household, identical to them. It is good to have somebody in entrance of you and ask them something.”

Why did he need to be a policeman when he was younger? What was the method of his dad and mom to their twelve kids? What did he study at an American college, in comparison with Czech faculties? And the place do you see your self within the subsequent ten years?

You may hearken to the interview with Tomáš Kač within the audio model firstly of the article – we’ll publish the transcript and video recording of your complete interview on Saturday.