Jozef Zsapka

Jozef Zsapka ranks among modern and versatile artists who have mastered their instrument in great detail. His activities range from performing, teaching, managing and organising to editing. He is credited for professionalizing the classical guitar in Slovakia and has largely contributed to spreading this instrument among the concert audience. As a soloist, he performed with all the leading Slovak ensembles, as well as with the Brno Chamber Orchestra (Czech Republic), Moravia Quartet (Czech Republic), Izmir Symphony Orchestra (Turkey), Orquestra Filarmonia das Beiras (Portugal), Symphonia Estorial (Spain). His concert performances took place in most of European countries (Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine, Russia, Spain, Portugal, Great Britain, France, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Austria, Greece, Luxemburg, Lichtenstein, Sweden), as well as in the USA, Mexico, Cuba, Japan, Australia, Mongolia, Vietnam and Turkey. Audiences could see him at festivals in Prague, Brno, Budapest, Esztergom, Bucharest, Sofia, Belgrade, Roma, Rieti, Bari, Milan, Messina, Vienna, Rust, Salzburg, Graz, Volos, Thessalonica, Athens, Weikersheim, Luxemburg, London, Paris, Barcelona, Madrid, Porto, Aveiro, Lisbon, Burgos, Sernancelhe, Berlin, Leipzig (Gewandhaus), Bonn, Cologne, Warsaw, Krakow, Wroclaw, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kiev, Ankara, Istanbul, Izmir, Ulaanbaatar, Kuwait, Hong-Kong, Saigon, Hanoi, Sendai, Tokyo, Nagoya, Sydney, Melbourne, Washington, New York, Los Angeles, Atlantic City, Havana. His chamber music collaborators include the flutist Miloš Jurkovič, guitarists Alois Menšík and Martin Mysliveček. Since 1979, he has been regularly appearing with his wife, flutist Dagmar Zsapková, in a duo Dagmar & Jozef Zsapka. This duo has been acclaimed by specialists as the best one of its kind in the world. Moreover, he has achieved an exceptional position among Slovak concert soloists in the area of studio recording. Apart from numerous radio or television recordings, he released over 40 titles for the labels OPUS, NAXOS, SPI MILAN, RCA Japan, GENDAI Ltd., ALBANY RECORDS USA etc. He works as a programme and music director of recording projects of the Bratislava Guitar Quartet and of musicians Gabriel Guillen, Jorgos Panetsos, Leo Witoszynski, József Eötvös, Andreas Kröper and others. Jozef Zsapka is a founder of the Slovak guitar school. Over the decades of educational activities, he has formulated the principle of teaching guitar and practically raised a whole generation of Slovak classical guitar professionals. His students have received over 100 awards in Slovak and international guitar competitions and won success on concert stages or as educators at various levels of specialised schools both home and abroad. Among his students are e.g. Nguyen van Dy, Igor Herzog, Sándor Papp, Vladimír Tomčányi, Miloš Tomašovič, Miloš Slobodník, Jana Mazáková, Miriam Brüllová, József Eötvös, Martin Krajčo or Denisa Benčová. He is a founder, programme director and director of the International Guitar Festival (est. 1975) and of the Joseph Kaspar Mertz International Guitar Contest in Bratislava (1995). He leads master classes in Slovakia and abroad (Austria, Greece, Spain, Liechtenstein, Portugal, France, Germany, Cuba, Japan, USA). He is regularly invited to sit as a member of juries in performers’ contests (Bratislava, Banská Bystrica, Vienna, Athens, Budapest, Eschen, Rust, Kutná Hora, Sernancelhe, Viseu, Petrer, Mottola, Esztergom, Vác and others). As for Jozef Zsapka’s editing activities, he focuses on publishing compositions dedicated to him or to the Dagmar & Jozef Zsapka duo. He has made a contribution to educational literature by preparing and editing memorial volumes of instructive guitar compositions (OPUS label). He has won international acclaim also thanks to his transcripts of flute works by world authors, which came out in music publishing houses Chanterelle, Trekel and Fritz & Vogt, Guitarissimo. Since 1995, he is a member of a highly specialised team of experts on literature on guitar music, based in Rome. The first fruit borne by their cooperation is the book „Guitar reference“.