Michaela Fukačová is a Czech cellist, living in Denmark. Born in Brno, into a family of musicologists, she started playing the piano at the age of five. At fourteen, she took up the cello, winning the Beethoven Cello Competition only two years later. Among her many top international prizes – the one from prestigious Tchaikovsky Competition held in Moscow, in 1986. Among Michaela’s professors – Bedrich Havlik, Sasa Vectomov, Erling Bløndal-Bengtson, André Navarra, Paul Tortelier, William Pleeth and Mstislav Rostropovich.
Michaela has performed throughout the Europe, the United States of America, Canada and Japan. She has played numerous concertos with orchestras, such as Czech Philharmonic (including a tour of Japan to celebrate the orchestra’s 100th anniversary), the Berlin Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, the NHK Japan, the Orquestra Sinfónica de Radiotelevision Espanola, the BBC Scottish Orchestra, the English Symphony Orchestra, and the Danish Radio Orchestra, among the others. She has performed with conductors such as Libor Pešek, Jiri Belohlavek, Petr Altrichter, Jiri Kout, Sir Charles Groves, David Shallon, Aldo Ceccato, Sixten Ehrling, Hans Graff, Gerd AIbrecht, Eliahu Inbal, Michail Jurowski, and many others.
Michaela Fukačová frequently performed in a duo with renowned Czech violinist Josef Suk, both in recital and concerto performances. She has recorded extensively with Supraphon (including the Elgar Concerto, conducted by Libor Pesek), Kontrapunkt (including the complete works for cello by Martinů), Panton (Dvořák Concerto with Jiri Belohlavek), Dacapo and Bridge Records. In 1994, she was awarded the Czech Grammy Classic for the best solo performance of the year. Her recording of Peter Lieberson’s Cello Concerto, entitled as the “Six Realms”, with the Odense Symphony Orchestra won the Gramophone Award in 2006, and in 2007 was nominated for a Grammy in the “Best Classical Album of the Year” category.
Since 1986, Michaela has been living in Denmark, where she was awarded with the Danish Music Critics Prize. She has recorded cello concertos by the Danish composers Poul Ruders and Hermann Koppel, and has premiered two new Danish cello concertos dedicated for her by Anders Koppel in 2009, and Jesper Koch in 2011. Enthusiastic responses to Michaela’s playing often stress her deeply moving interpretations and amazing ability to captivate the public. Michaela Fukačová plays a cello by Carlo Tononi.