Bratislava Hot Serenaders is an orchestra of world renown. In 1994, it performed at a festival dedicated to music of the 1920s and 1930s in Saint-Raphaël, France, where it received the Sidney d’Or Award. The orchestra regularly performs both in Slovakia and abroad, appearing in standalone concerts as well as at jazz festivals, including Whitley Bay (England, 2008, 2006, 2004), Bohém Ragtime & Jazz Festival (Hungary, 2008, 2001), the 25th Czechoslovak Jazz Festival in Přerov (Czech Republic, 2008, 2002), Hořice JazzNights (Czech Republic, 2008), the 11th Swing Music Festival in Prague (Czech Republic, 2008), Prague Spring (Czech Republic, 2006), “New Orleans – Visegrád” First Central-European Swing Festival (Hungary, 2005), La Plus Grande Cave De Jazz Du Monde (France, 2004), Salgótarján Jazz Festival (Hungary, 2004), Breda Jazz Festival (Netherlands, 2003), and others.
Bratislava Hot Serenaders has released five profile CD albums: Prvé rendez-vous (1998), Cotton Club Stomp (2003), The Broken Record (2006), Take It Easy (2008), and Lonely Melody (2014), as well as two CD albums dedicated to František Krištof Veselý, performed by Milan Lasica: Ja som optimista (2001) and Celý svet sa mračí (2002). These two albums received wide acclaim throughout Slovakia. Ja som optimista even became the best-selling CD across all music genres for two months. In February 2002, it was awarded a gold record, followed in January 2003 by a platinum record, along with a gold record for Celý svet sa mračí. Selections from both albums were used to produce the first Slovak music DVD, Milan Lasica & Bratislava Hot Serenaders.
For two theatre seasons, the orchestra performed together with Milan Lasica in the production of the same name, Ja som optimista, at the Štúdio L+S theatre in Bratislava.
Among the ensemble’s notable achievements are also recordings for successful musicals and theatre productions such as Niekto to rád horúce (directed by M. Lasica), Piano Revue (directed by J. Nvota Jr.), Garderobier (directed by R. Polák), the operetta Pod cudzou vlajkou (directed by R. Ballek), and the play Niekto to rád slovenské by the Radošina Naive Theatre (author: S. Štepka), for which the orchestra’s pianist, Ľubica Salamon-Čekovská, composed the music.
In 2006, as part of the Viva Musica! summer festival in Bratislava, the orchestra successfully premiered an original jazz version of George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue with American pianist Adam Birnbaum, and to this day it remains the only orchestra of its kind in Europe to keep this work in its permanent repertoire, performed with pianist Ladislav Fančovič.