Jan Zahourek

Jan Zahourek is a doublebass and viola da gamba player active in the UK music scene.

He has, as an experienced doublebass player, a passion for the musical role of bass in music: the rhythm, the harmony, the depth of pitch, the sound, the support.

Jan is exploring this fundamental role, and stretching into other roles, both on bass and on the viola da gamba; of melody, leadership, and acuteness of pitch in the Zarek chamber music project.

Jan hails from the U.S. He credits a childhood spent half in New York City, and half in the university town of Amherst, Massachusetts, for cultivating and nourishing his passion for music. The New York of his childhood was alive with music and emerging arts, both in formal venues and out on the streets and in parks. Meanwhile, the Amherst community and schools had exceptionally well-supported music programs with superb teachers and performers. Jan credits his parents for encouraging him to make the most of each.

Jan studied music at Sarah Lawrence College in New York, where he focussed mainly on jazz bass, with a little classical piano on the side, and then, after a three year hiatus due to finger injury, accepted a full scholarship for a Masters’ in Double Bass Performance at the University of Massachusetts, where he focussed entirely on classical doublebass.

Afterwards, Jan spent half a decade in Padova, Italy, playing extensively with the chamber group Ensemble Musagete, as well as other small orchestras around Padova, and the Civic Wind Band (true!).

Jan then moved to London, where he was offered a full scholarship for another graduate degree, this time in viola da gamba at Trinity College of Music, while he continued to play in the city, region and across the globe in orchestras and ensembles, including the Philharmonia, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Solomon’s Knot, the English Concert and many others.

In recent years, nostalgic for chamber repertoire, Jan has turned to invent his own work. With some very generous funding, he is revisiting his lifelong love of chamber music through various projects involving the doublebass and the viola da gamba, and in collaboration with fantastic colleagues in the UK and across the globe.

He warmly welcomes contact with anyone curious about the Zarek project, or interested in collaboration, not only in music, but in other media, such as dance or visual arts.

Jan remains based in London, where he lives with his two daughters.