Vesna Vaško (born 5 May 1971), known by the stage name Vesna Cáceres, is a

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus *Czech (surnam ...

composer, singer and

accordionist Accordions (from 19th-century German ', from '—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a reed in a frame). The es ...

Background

Vesna Vaško was born in

Croatia Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...

in a

- Slovenian family. She lived in

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

since 1990.

Education

She studied the

accordion Accordions (from 19th-century German language, German ', from '—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a Reed (mou ...

in Croatia. In 1990, she came to study

musicology Musicology is the academic, research-based study of music, as opposed to musical composition or performance. Musicology research combines and intersects with many fields, including psychology, sociology, acoustics, neurology, natural sciences, ...

Charles University Charles University (CUNI; , UK; ; ), or historically as the University of Prague (), is the largest university in the Czech Republic. It is one of the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, oldest universities in the world in conti ...

in Prague. In addition to musicology, she studied singing at the

Jaroslav Ježek Conservatory Jaroslav Ježek Conservatory (), located in Prague, Czech Republic, is a conservatory specializing in contemporary music. Known primarily as a school for jazz and commercial music, it also offers a six-year undergraduate diploma in Classical m ...

, sang in the vocal sextet Prestissimo with

Big Band A big band or jazz orchestra is a type of musical ensemble of jazz music that usually consists of ten or more musicians with four sections: saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm section. Big bands originated during the early 1910s and ...

Radio Prague Radio Prague International () is the official international broadcasting station of the Czech Republic. Broadcasting first began on 31 August 1936 near the spa town of Poděbrady. Radio Prague broadcasts in six languages: English, German, Fr ...

. In 1993, she represented

the Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...

in the World Youth Choir.

Career

In 1996, she founded her group Anima Band together with the Mexican guitarist Pablo Ortiz. With Anima, she performed in clubs, at concerts and festivals in the Czech Republic and abroad, with a repertoire that included original arrangements of Brazilian and

Latin American music The music of Latin America refers to music originating from Latin America, namely the Spanish language, Spanish and Portuguese language, Portuguese-speaking regions of the Americas south of the United States. Latin American music highly incorpor ...

and her own compositions. For four years she moderated the Czech-Spanish program Contacto Latino at Radio 1. Since the late nineties she has expanded her repertoire to include

jazz standards Jazz standards are musical compositions that are an important part of the musical repertoire of jazz musicians, in that they are widely known, performed, and recorded by jazz musicians, and widely known by listeners. There is no definitive List ...

and her own jazz compositions. With a repertoire of swing & bossa she performs at

jazz club A jazz club is a venue where the primary entertainment is the performance of live jazz music, although some jazz clubs primarily focus on the study and/or promotion of jazz-music. Jazz clubs are usually a type of nightclub or bar, which is licens ...

s in the Czech Republic and abroad. In 2004, she began a solo career as a

chanson A (, ; , ) is generally any Lyrics, lyric-driven French song. The term is most commonly used in English to refer either to the secular polyphonic French songs of late medieval music, medieval and Renaissance music or to a specific style of ...

singer interpreting songs to texts by French and

Czech poets Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus *Czech (surnam ...

, as well as her own songs, accompanying on

. Since 2004, she has participated in various theatre projects, writing and playing music for theatre performances.

Discography

* ''Ánima cum corpo'', V.I.V. Production, 1997 * ''Písníčky z Jugoslávie'', Vaško Music 1998 * ''Písníčky z Jugoslávie 2'', Vaško Music 2000 * ''Little Prince'', demo 2001 * ''Baile'', Vesna, 2002 * ''V lásce je všechno tajemné'', demo, 2004 * ''Vesna Sings Gershwin'', demo, 2004 * ''5 elementos '', Nextera, 2004 * ''Aquarela do Brasil'', Vesna, 2008 * ''Vzpomínky na Jadran'', 2008 * ''Le bal des fleurs'', Vesna, 2013

Theatre

* ''Nepřerušená píseň'' (2004) * ''Tonka Šibenice'' (2004) – Divadlo v Řeznické * ''Manželské vraždění'' (2005) – Divadlo Na Jezerce * ''Zlomatka'' (2006) – Divadlo v Řeznické * ''Čtyři polohy a jedna Vesna'' (2006) – Klub Lávka * ''Krvavá svatba'' (2010) – Divadlo Rokoko

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Caceres, Vesna Czech jazz singers Czech women jazz singers Bossa nova singers 1971 births Living people Czech accordionists Czech women accordionists Czech composers Czech women composers People from Sisak Musicians from Prague Charles University alumni Czech people of Slovenian descent Yugoslav emigrants to Czechoslovakia