Iva Bittová

IVA BITTOVÁ - violinist, singer and composer, who recognises no boundaries in music, is one of the most significant and original personalities of contemporary Czech music. Her musical projects are events not only on the Czech scene, but world-wide. Foremost of Czech artists she has won recognition on a world-wide scale (she has staged successful concerts all over Europe, the United States and Japan. Her records arouse interest internationally).
Iva Bittová was born in 1958 into a musical family and she lives in a small village near Brno, called Lelekovice. She studied acting at secondary school. In 1996 she won two prizes in the prestigious competition organised by the Academy of Popular Music. She came first in the category "Singer of the Year" and in the alternative music category.
Iva Bittová on herself
I come from a musical family. My father, Koloman Bitto, came from southern Slovakia and was a truly versatile musician: his principál Instruments were double--bass, trumpet, guitar and dulcimer, He played folk music of the time, but he also spent several seasons as double-bass player with the Zdeněk Nejedlý Theatre opera company. My mother, Ludmila Bittová, née Masařová, a native of Moravian Slovakia, is a teacher. However, she has spent all her life singing in stage choruses and other vocal ensembles. l am the second of my parents' three daughters. l was born in the town of Bruntál, in northern Moravia, on 22 July, 1958, As my father changed jobs quite a few times, we kept moving from one place to another. We even moved to Slovakia, then back again... Anyway, we mostly lived in Moravia. After a considerable period in the city of Opava, we eventually settled in Brno, where I completed my studies at the drama college and for over ten years (from my first year at college) l worked as an actress in the avant-garde theatre company Husa na provázku.

This year is my seventh in the heart of the country: l now live in the village of Lelekovice near Brno, in a small house with a garden, close to a wood, with my two sons, Matouš (*1982) and Toník (*1991).
When l was a child, our whole family lived for music. l took ballet lessons, sang, played the violin, and acted children's parts on stage. After we moved to Brno, l put the violin aside and devoted myself wholly to drama studies. l had the chance to appear in several feature films - The Island of Silver Herons, Rosy Dreams, Outlaw Ballad, The Diary of One Who Disappeared - as well as in various television and Brno Radio productions. l acquired my formal and practical vocal training while a student at the drama college and was given basic Information about voice and singing techniques. Having spent some time working as an actress, l began to feel a renewed inner urge to express myself through music. l found a violin teacher. His name was Rudolf Šťastný. By then my father had become seriously ill. He died three years later and, in many respects, professor Šťastný became a second father to me. l have continued violin lessons to this day, with special focus on the classical literature written for this instrument, which is so abundant that it could easily serve me until the end of my life.
Apart from playing the violin, l also sing, creating my own music and earning my living as a professional musician, giving concerts at horne, in Bohemia and Moravia, and worldwide. The violin is one of the finest musical Instruments. It shapes and transforms me, awakens my feelings and emotions, it fulfils me in the aesthetic sense of the word, and illustrates the highest values in my attitudes to music, to other people, and to myself. That is why l love the violin - and to love means to live!