Prof. Petra Poláčková

Petra Poláčková was born in Rožnov pod Radhoštěm, Czech Republic, in 1985 and received her first guitar lessons at the age of six from Bohuslav Faltus and Miroslava Pavelková at the music school in Rožnov pod Radhoštěm and from Prof. Zdeněk Dvořák at the Lounských Music School in Prague.

From 2004 to 2010, she studied at the Pardubice Conservatory with Prof. Petr Saidl. At the same time, she taught guitar at the music schools in Hradec Králové and Choceň. She continued her musical education at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Graz in the class of Prof. Paolo Pegoraro, where she completed her bachelor's degree (concert performance and pedagogy) and her master's degree (concert performance) with distinction.

From 2018 to 2024, she taught at the Franz Schubert Music School in Fürstenfeld and at the Johann-Joseph-Fux Conservatory in Graz (Austria). She currently teaches at the Royal Academy of Music Aarhus/Aalborg (Denmark) and, since December 2024, as professor of guitar at the Franz Liszt University of Music in Weimar (Germany).

Petra Poláčková has spent many years intensively studying the romantic guitar and its special literature. More recently, her musical focus has been on early music, for which she studied viola da gamba with Christoph Urbanetz and lute with Prof. David Bergmüller, among others.

Her artistic work regularly takes her to concerts, masterclasses, jury duties and conferences at renowned festivals and guitar events worldwide, including in the Czech Republic, Austria, Germany, Poland, Slovakia, Italy, France, Finland, Denmark, Norway, Hungary, Kosovo, Montenegro, Slovenia, Spain, Portugal, Great Britain, Israel, Mexico, Australia, the USA, Chile and Switzerland.

In June 2020, she released her debut CD ‘WEISS’ with works by the German lutenist Sylvius Leopold Weiss. In April 2025, her CD ‘J. K. Mertz’ will be released by Bridge Records, produced by David Starobin. Both CDs were recorded on a 9-string romantic guitar and reflect her preference for the Baroque and Romantic repertoire.

Since 2010, Petra Poláčková has been involved in the organisation of the Mikulov Guitar Festival (Czech Republic), where she contributes her artistic and organisational skills and actively shapes the development of the international guitar scene.

Petra Poláčková plays a historical guitar by Domingo Esteso (1923; on loan from M°Gabriele Lodi), a classical guitar by Martin Šuk (Esteso copies) and a 9-string romantic guitar by Jan Tuláček (2014).