Žak Ozmo

Music Director, Lutenist, Scholar

Žak Ozmo first started his musical training at the age of seven on the classical guitar and had his first broadcasted solo performance at the age of fourteen. After years of musical training and professional performances (during which he also earned a diploma in architecture) he turned his attention fully to the study of early plucked instruments, performance practice, and related history and philosophy. His pursuit of historically-informed performance practice and musical direction included studies with James Tyler, Pat O'Brien, and Bill Carter, among others. He studied conducting with Noel Edison and Lucinda Carver, and musicology with Bruce Alan Brown and Giulio Ongaro. Žak holds a doctorate in early music performance from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, along with postgraduate qualifications in the same area from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London.

Hailed by Classical Music magazine as 'an expert on early plucked instruments', he has performed as a continuo player, chamber musician, and as a soloist across Europe, North America, and Asia on the archlute, theorbo, Renaissance lute, and Baroque guitar. His performances have included numerous recitals, lecture-recitals, and concerts with various early music groups and orchestras (Florilegium, Opera Atelier, Charivari Agréable, Los Angeles Music Viva, and Los Angeles Baroque Orchestra, among many others) as well as fully staged baroque operas, semi-operas, and oratorios (most notably Purcell's Dido and Aeneas and The Indian Queen, Charpentier's Acteon, Rameau's Platée, Lully's Thésée, and Handel's Xerxes and Susanna).

Žak assumed the role of musical co-director in a Canadian performance of Henry Purcell's The Indian Queen in 1999 and continued his work as a musical director in the Los Angeles and London areas. In London he formed L'Avventura London, a professional ensemble dedicated to a historically-informed exploration of repertoire from the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries. Testifying to the ensemble's rapid rise, L'Avventura's performances have been featured on BBC Radio 3, German KulturRadio and MDR Figaro, Austrian ORF Radio Ö1, and Belgium Radio Klara, among others; the press has praised the group for its 'excellent musicianship' (Gramophone) and described its performances as 'engaging, entertaining…an enormous amount of atmosphere and character' (Opera News). L'Avventura's unique combination of brilliant musicianship and cutting-edge musicology has led to its appointment as Ensemble in Association at the Foundling Museum in London starting in 2011.

Žak has been a recipient of various prestigious awards, prizes, and scholarships including a recent Society for Theatre Research award for reconstructing and recording music from English ballad operas and the Dowland Prize for Lute at John Kerr Competition in Kent. He has also been active as a lecturer in historical performance practice, collegium director, and lute teacher for various early music societies and at the Royal College of Music in London, University of Southern California in Los Angeles, and the University of California at Fullerton. As an extension of his educational and performing activities, in 2011 he will take on the role of the founder and director of London Community Baroque Orchestra based at the Foundling Museum. The goal of the organization will be providing training in historical performance practice to its members and presenting high-level musical performances, while working on musical repertoire consisting of both much-loved masterpieces and new discoveries (including those contained in the Foundling's one-of-a-kind Gerald Coke Handel Collection).

Žak's writings on historical performance practice have been translated into French, German, Spanish, and Korean, and appear in some of the leading journals and magazines in the field. His affinity for re-discovering and reviving lost musical repertoires has led to an ongoing affiliation with the groundbreaking Ballad Operas Online database through Oxford University Digital Libraries, while his current projects for publication include an edition of eighteenth-century lute concerti for A-R Editions. Further, he frequently presents his research at conferences in Europe and North America; upcoming presentations include those at the SECEM, The New University of Lisbon, the recent Handel, Purcell, and Literature conference at Senate House, University of London, and the Annual Meeting of the American Musicological Society in Philadelphia (USA).