Tour Dates: 6 Mar - 16 Mar, 2010
“Rebecca Čápová played supremely well...sophisticated, unbelievably expressive and mature...”
- Kolner Kunstsalon, January 2004

Čápová Performances
Reviews

Rebecca Čápová was born into a musical family in Cork, Ireland.  Her earliest studies were with Eleanor Malone at the Cork School of Music, where she also took violin lessons, and with Mabel Swainson in Dublin.

Rebecca started participating in regional and national competitions from an early age, and at the age of 14, enjoyed her first success abroad, winning second prize at the Warwick Festival of Festivals, UK. Two years later, she represented Ireland at the Heinrich Neuhuas Piano Festival in Moscow. When chosen to represent Ireland at the Eurovision Grand prix in 2000, she sat several of her final school exams in a hotel bedroom in Bergen, Norway in between rehearsals and performances.

Her interest in foreign languages contributed to her eagerness to study in Mainland Europe. In 2000, Rebecca was accepted as a student of Pavel Gililov at the Hochschule fur Musik, Cologne. During her studies there, she was awarded several prizes, including 2nd Prize at the International Piano Competition Citta Di Sulmona, Italy; the Concerto Prize in Cologne and the Belfast Classical Music Bursary.

While studying the Masters Degree program at the Prague Academy of Performing Arts, she won 1st Prize at the International Piano Competition Citta Di Sangemini, 3rd Prize at the International Piano Competition V. Belini and the Lyons Club Bursary in Cork, Ireland. She also was the recipient of the award for the best interpretation of a work by Bach at the Concorso Internazionale C. Togni. In 2007 she was awarded a First Class Honours Masters Degree in Prague. She is presently a "Konzertexaman" student of Pavel Gililov in Cologne. In 2008, she was awarded 1st Prize in the Premio Pianistico "Silvio Begnalli", as well as 3rd Prize at the Concorso Internazionale dei Duchi d'Aquaviva.

Rebecca has given many concerts both in Ireland and abroad. Concerto performances include those with the Pardubice Philharmonic Orchestra in Prague and in Chrudim, Hochschulsinfonieorchester in Cologne, and in Ireland, with the RTE National Symphony Orchestra, Cork Chamber Orchestra and Camerata Ireland. She has given recitals in Japan; at the Rhein Ruhr Festival; at the Sulmona Estate Festival, Italy; National Concert Hall, Dublin and at the Martinu Hall, Prague.

A keen chamber musician, Rebecca has also given concerts with oboist Emmet Byrne in Ireland, Germany and on tour in Japan, 2006, as part of the EU Japan Fest. In 2007, another tour of Japan with Ioana Petcu-Colan, Adrian Calef and Daire Halpin. She also performs with sister Kirsten Čápová, piano.

Rebecca has complimented her studies with lessons from such distinguished musicians as Gyorgy Sebok, Tatiana Zelikmann, Drahomira Biligova, Philippe Cassard and Philip Martin.

Reviews

“…sharply-pointed account of Poulenc’s Sonata… unfailing delights of Dvorak’s Slavonic Dances.”
- Michael Dervan, The Irish Times, 18 September 2007

“They (Byrne, Čápová) were at one in terms of phrasing, colour, balance, nuance and approach. Čápová, a powerful, full-toned solo performer, was a superb accompanist to Byrne’s sensitive, focused playing…Nielson’s Two Fantasy Pieces….a masterclass in the shading of dynamics…This was music-making of the highest order. Čápová revealed a wonderful command of colours and dynamic shadings in the Brazilian composer Villa-Lobos’ Prole do Bebe, and she carried this authority, combined with sensitivity, through to Liszt’s transcription of Schumann’s lovely song, Widmung.” 
- Declan Townsend, The Examiner, 4 August 2007

“There was no late afternoon concert, so I took myself off to the Parish Hall for the recital featuring two sisters at one piano, another of my favourite musical things. Rebecca and Kirsten Čápová produced shimmering and lustrous tones for Debussy's Petite Suite, and Schubert's Fantasie in F minor, before presenting an exuberant rendition of four Slavonic Dances Op 46 of Dvorák -- the numbers 1, 2, 7 and 8. Having misplaced my notes, I can't identify the encore, but it was as charming as the rest of the program.”
- Kelly Ferjutz, Ensemble, July 2007

“Their (Byrne and Čáp) playing showed some of the best characteristics of Germanic training at this level of maturity and earnest engagement with the music…Not once did they try to convince by means other than the purely musical…a reliable and homogenous partnership…Serious purpose was also shown in R. Čáp’s playing of the most demanding and wide ranging of Schumann’s Novelletten Op.21 for solo piano.”
- Martin Adams, The Irish Times, May 2004

“Schubert…melodic and dynamic contrasts; sudden rests; all this was shown beautifully by 1981 born Rebecca Čáp who played Schubert’s Sonata in a minor, Op. 143. One could hardly believe the amount of emotional energy from this petite pianist.”
- Rheinische Post, July 2004

“Rebecca Čáp played supremely well…sophisticated, unbelievably expressive and mature...”
- Kolner Kunstsalon, January 2004

“Rebecca Čáp has a sensitive and penetrating tone, fluid and clear technique, a richness of colour and a clearness of thematic form evident in Ginastera’s Sonata Op. 22”  
- Amici della Musica, September 2002

“Rebecca Čáp from Ireland played Faure’s Ballade Op. 19 in a highly graceful way. The young petite pianist let the music flow gently in lyrical figures. The piece seemed dream-like and demanded from the soloist a high degree of virtuosity.”  
- Kolner Stadt-Anzeiger, May 2002

“Thoughtful musicianship was one of the qualities of Rebecca Čáp’s piano recital at the Bank of Ireland Arts Centre…Her playing has that objective quality - free from histrionics and concerned primarily with doing justice to the music…”
- Martin Adams, The Irish Times, May 1999

“When nature breaks through, as it certainly does in the case of Rebecca Čáp, the result is exciting, and somehow, rather magical…Her Scarlatti Sonata in G was like champagne, well-balanced, crystal-clear and it bubbled. She played Ravel’s gorgeous Oiseaux Tristes with such lovely sense of colour and desolation…The moderato movement from Sonata in a minor, D 845…showed an astonishing range and control of dynamics that were perfectly scaled and beautifully balanced…”
- Declan Townsend, The Examiner, May 1997