Miki Skuta

Skuta’s focus is on classical music and jazz, with activities in the field of classical music currently predominant. He has played with outstanding musicians of both genres, including Angelika Kirschlagerová, Christian Muthspiel, Elisabeth Kulmanová, Wolfgang Muthspiel, Benjamin Schmid, Tomasz Stanko, Didier Lockwood, Mark Feldman, Jiří Stivín, Juraj Bartoš, Marek Piaček etc. He has given  solo performances or played as a member of various ensembles (Motley Mothertonque, OENM, Octet Ost, die reihe, Bruckner Orchester Linz, Slovak Chamber Orchestra, SO Danubia-Budapest, Slovak Philharmonia, Capella Istropolitana, Ghymes etc.) at festivals such as Bach Unwrapped London, International Liszt Fesztivál, Kunstfest Weimar, Zürich Jazz Festival, The Piano-Budapest, Salzburg Biennale, Bratislava Music Festival, Saalfelden Jazz Festival, Contrasts (Ľvov), Warsaw Autumn etc. With his wife Nora Skuta he founded a piano duo in 1996, which has since focused on presenting 20th century works. He has played as a soloist with the following conductors: Johannes Kalizke, David McQueen, Domonkos Héja, Daniel Gazon, Bohdan Warchal, John C.Whitney, Martin Sieghart, Christian Muthspiel, Róbert Stankovský, Ondrej Lenárd, Szymon Byvalec, Theodore Kuchar etc.

As well as making recordings for Slovak Radio, Radio Suisse, STV and ORF he records for a number of recording companies at home and abroad (see discography). His recording of The Goldberg Variations for the Hevhetia company was very highly estimated by a critic in the prestigious BBC Music Magazine, where it received the highest five-star rating. Thanks to this Skuta made his debut recital in London and Paris (2005). Subsequently his CD of work by J. S. Bach also received the maximum five-star rating in BBC Music Magazine. 

Since 1993 Skuta’s compositions (jazz, pop or contemporary music) have been heard in Austria, Germany, Switzerland, France, Holand and Hungary at more than 80 concerts. In 2005 he received an invitation to write a violin concert for the Austrian violinist Benjamin Schmid. Entitled Violinkonzert 2006, this work of Skuta’s, following its premiere in June 2006 in Salzburg, has been presented at ten further concerts.

“…The Slovak player Miki Skuta succeeds brilliantly in one of the most impressive piano performances that I have yet heard. If he does not usurp the benchmark status enjoyed by Glenn Gould in his 1955 recording of the Goldbergs he probably deserves to share it.” PERFORMANCE *****
SOUND ***** 
(Nicholas Anderson: Goldberg Variations [CD review], In: BBC Music Magazine, November 2004, p. 86)