Lukáš, a Czech San Francisco-based artist and composer, explores empathy in various forms, serving as a composer, educator, performer, and organizer. His recent endeavors include board directorship at The Resonance Project, a nonprofit focusing on music as a conflict transformation through neuroscience. He co-organized a San Francisco Ukraine-benefit Concert of Compassion, uniting national American and Ukrainian artists on one stage. Lukáš co-curated SUMU in Helsinki, supported by the EU Commission, and regularly co-hosts the international empathy-provoking new-music festival ECHOES in Prague. He instructs at The Walden School and the San Francisco Conservatory Of Music. In 2024, Lukáš will be Composer-in-Residence at the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation, Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts, ISCM’s VICC (Sweden), and received the Susan and Ford Schumann Fellowship for the 2024 Aspen Music Festival. His compositions have been commissioned by renowned ensembles, including the San Francisco Symphony, Cantori New York, Janáček Philharmonic Ostrava, Friction Quartet, 2Low duo, Bluvenduo, and Punkt Prague, among others.
Lukáš has received several awards such as the Highmisth Award for CATCH (2022) (symphonic orchestra); Southwest American Prize for BABEL (2018) (symphonic orchestra); Kühn Choir of Prague Composition Award for Nová míza (2022) (SSAATTBB a cappella); or International Composition Competition Riga for his Kyrie (2014) (mixed choir, piano, electronics). His composition mentors include John Corigliano, David Conte (MM ’19, San Francisco Conservatory Of Music), and Otomar Kvěch (DiS (BA) ’17, Prague Conservatoire). He has participated in masterclasses with composers George Lewis, Allain Gaussin, Liviu Marinescu, Dimitris Maronidis, Michel Merlet, and Ériks Ešenvalds, and has collaborated with many composers, including Nico Muhly, and conductors, such as Ragnar Bohlin, Mark Shapiro or Alena Hron.
