Markéta Foukalová & Martin Brunner (album release)

Singer Markéta Foukalová and composer and pianist Martin Brunner present a new album of Jan Zábrana’s poems set to music. This is the first musical adaptation of the poems of our distinguished writer, poet, and translator on such a scale and within a cohesive artistic project. Jan Zábrana’s work is characterized by immense emotional power and masterful use of language, while also serving as an essential testimony to life in communist Czechoslovakia. The new programme was premiered at the Rehearsal for Truth festival, Festival Honoring Václav Havel, in New York and in Vancouver, Canada. The album Zábrana is released on the renowned label Animal Music. Foukalová and Brunner invited two exceptional instrumentalists to join them: pianist Vít Křišťan (Jaromír Honzák, Dan Bárta, Robert Balzar Trio, Jana Kirschner), who here plays Rhodes piano and other keyboards, and guitarist Tomáš Fuchs (Jana Kirschner).

Martin Brunner is a composer, pianist, and keyboard player. In his original projects he collaborates with leading figures of the Czech jazz scene. He is one of the most prominent progressive composers of his generation and has released five authorial albums under his own name. He writes music for the award-winning Concept Art Orchestra big band and for classical chamber ensembles. The Hradec Králové Philharmonic commissioned him to compose a piano concerto for the 800th anniversary of the city’s founding, with pianist Slávka Vernerová as the soloist at the premiere. As a sideman, he occasionally collaborates with numerous artists across genres on the Czech music scene. He teaches composition and jazz performance at the Jaroslav Ježek Conservatory.
www.martinbrunner.cz

Markéta Foukalová is a singer whose work also extends into music and lyric writing. She often moves across genres, from pop and jazz to electronic music and contemporary classical. She is sought after by leading musical personalities and ensembles such as Michal Pavlíček, Michal Prokop, Jasná Páka, and many others. Her home band is LANUGO, with whom she is preparing her fifth album. In 2025 she released her debut solo album titled Jinak. She teaches singing at a conservatory and leads the successful children’s choir Beznot.