It’s not easy to find information online about the multifaceted and eccentric artist Markéta Procházková-Lutková but those who knew her, especially her students, agree that she was one of the most notable improvisers, composers, poets, and pedagogues of her generation.
Markéta Procházková-Lutková was born on September 25th, 1963, in Prague. She wrote poetry, played piano, composed and improvised from a young age.
She completed five years of her elementary education in just four years at which point, in 1974, she began studying piano with Vladimír Topinka. In 1978 she was accepted to the Prague Conservatory where she studied solo piano and composition with Ilja Hurník and organ improvisation with Jaroslav Vodrážka. After completing her conservatory degree in 1982, she continued her secondary training there and, in 1984, completed her studies with her own Concert for Piano and String Orchestra, conducted by Přemysl Charvát and a theoretical work titled Raising Children Towards Composing and Creativity (Výchova dítěte ke skladbě a všestranné tvořivosti.) She spent the years from 1982 to 1986 studying composition at the Academy of Music in Prague with Josef Ceremuga, where her final thesis was on the subject of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy Op. 80, which she analizsed and ompared with The Ode To Joy, and an analysis of Jiří Dvořáček’s Organ Sonata. She completed her composition degree by presenting her own works, Sextet for Flute, String Quartet, and Piano and Concertino for Oboe, English Horn, Piano, and Orchestra. In 1990, she gained pedagogical approbation to teach composition at conservatories and music schools.
She was a respected poet and published the collections Sny bez přístřeší (Dreams Without Shelter, 1979), Vítání světla (Greeting Light, 1981), Na prahu lásky (On the Threshold of Love, 1983) and Podej mi ruku… (Give Me Your Hand, 2000).
She hosted a number of public concerts where she presented her own works alongside those of well-known composers. She would also use these occasions to share her improvisation skills, which earned her the unofficial title of Jaroslav Vodrážka’s successor. She also published organ and piano accompaniments to the songs of her husband, singer-songwriter Petr Maria Lutka.
First and foremost, however, Markéta Procházková-Lutková dedicated herself to music pedagogy with an emphasis on creativity and keyboard instruments. She discovered many talents, whom she aided in launching their professional careers.
She died on June 2nd 2020 at the age of 56 years old. A public ceremony will take place on Saturday, June 27th at 2pm during a requiem mass at the Church of St. Bartholomew in Prague.
Her students are sifting through her estate and plan to collect her compositions and recordings to share with the broader public.
