Musical supervisor / Recording engineer

Jan Žáček, born in Prague 1957, won the first prize at the National Competition for Classical Guitar in Czechoslovakia at the age of 24 (when he was still a mathematics student). In 1982, shortly after completing his mathematics studies, he emigrated for political reasons; he then studied guitar in Karlsruhe and Basel, where he earned a degree in music with honours.

Jan has performed in countless cultural centres on four continents. His solo recitals at London´s Wigmore Hall (June 1996) or at New York´s Carnegie Hall (March 1997) were received with enthusiasm. He has performed as a soloist with the Berlin Symphony Orchestra, the Prague Symphony Orchestra an the Orchestra of the Stuttgart National Opera under García Navarro. He has performed as chamber music partner to eminent musicians such as the German baritone Olaf Bär (CD in duo with Olaf Bär was released by Musicaphon in 2007), the English tenor Neil Jenkins and the Janáček Quartet. He has appeared on many radio and TV programmes (Radio Bavaria 4, Radio Free Berlin, Deutschlandfunk, Südwestrundfunk, Classic FM London and the Czech Television I). He produced eight CDs for Supraphon, Panton, Cavalli Rec., Audite, Fermate, Musicaphon and Novalis, two of them for the benefit of amnesty international.
 Video with the guitar duo Jan Žáček - Petr Vit 

He held masterclasses at the Trinity College in London or at the Colorado college in Colorado Springs. Apart from his concert and teaching activities Jans great interest lies in the field of composition and arrangement. His works were published by Breitkopf & Härtel.

Since the end of the 80s, he has concerned himself with the recording of his instrument, initially out of discontentment with the studio sound of many guitar recordings. He began a search of many years for acoustically suitable locations for recording guitar music. His interest in musical-acoustical phenomena is manifested in his treatise “Ein Beitrag zur Theorie der Ober- und Kombinationstöne” (Musikhochschule Karlsruhe, 1989). For many years he studied acoustics and recording technique, educated himself as a recording engineer, until in 1995 he founded the recording studio Acustica. Up until 2008 Acustica was conceived as a mobile studio. In that year Jan set up the recording studio Acustica in the KLANGSCHEUNE – a renovated barn in Lottstetten-Nack, a small idyllic village near the Swiss border, where he also lives.