Ivan Sokol

Ivan Sokol has toured the entire Europeseveral times, besides European part of the former USSR - Russia, the Baltic countries, as well as Asian republics, USA and Mexico. Apart from many Slovak festivals, he performed for audiences during the Prague Spring festival, International Festival in Brno, festivals in Olomouc, Ostrava, Wiener Festwochen, during celebrations in Krakow, Vroclav, Lodž, Oliva (Gdańsk), at festivals in Istanbul, Brussels, Stockholm, Arnstadt, Erfurt and in Hamburg. Apart from collaborating with all the Slovak orchestras, he has also appeared with the foremost Czech orchestras and other foreign ensembles (e.g. in Vroclav, with the Philharmonics of Krakow and Sophia, with the Collegium musicum des WDR etc.). As a soloist, he worked with conductors from Slovakia (Ondrej Lenárd, Ľudovít Rajter, Bystrík Režucha, Štefan Róbl, Ladislav Slovák, Róbet Stankovský, Ján Zimmer), Czech Republic (Karel Ančerl, Mario Klemens, Jiří Kout, Tomáš Koutnik, Stanislav Macura, Lubomír Mátl, Václav Neumann, Libor Pešek, Jindřich Rohan, Milivoj Uzelac) and with other international conductors (Leopold Mayer, Alfred Walter etc.). He has cooperated with prominent Slovak instrumentalists and vocalists. He leads summer master classes. Under his initiative, several historic organs in Slovakia have been renovated, becoming thus functional for concerts.
"Ivan Sokol approaches the interpreted author and piece with modesty and respect. Thanks to his technical proficiency, he is able to relish and fully present to the listener the ideas and moods concelaed in the score. Sokol captivates the audience not only with his clear facture, natural drive, deliberate lack of pathos, natural sensitivity, and sense for the right degree of registration, which he choses in relation with the instrument's possibilities, composition tempo and style, and in line with the acoustic characteristics of a specific concert space. What is he renowned for is a sense for the build-up of lines and arcs, featuring evocative tension and coherence. His performance is always brilliant, conscientious and breathtaking."
(Vladimír Čížik: Dictionary of Slovak Concert Art vol. I)