Cé hí Daniela Vránová?
- CIBCA Committee
- 5 days ago
- 6 min read
Updated: 3 days ago
Daniela, tell me a bit about yourself.
By profession, I'm a certified English translator and interpreter, and I have been doing it as a freelancer for the last 15 years; before that, I was working as a translator for the Embassy of Malaysia, which was really convenient since I love travelling. However, music is my life! I come from Valašské Meziříčí and studied at the music conservatory in Ostrava first. After gaining some experience playing in the theatre orchestra in Opava, I decided to switch tracks and keep music as a hobby. I've been involved in all kinds of music settings, from orchestras, through chamber music groups to bands. I got involved in Irish music by chance, really, when my great friend Petra Skývová moved to Ireland about 20 years ago, and I started going there. My very first trip to Ireland was when she got a summer job for us working in a pub in Clare Island, County Mayo. That's where I first encountered Irish-speaking people and musicians, and that was the first place I heard authentic live Irish music.
And then I found out that there were some Czech bands playing Irish music, for example Dún an Doras, and when I heard Radvan Markus playing the flute, I absolutely loved it. I even went for his courses with Bernard's Summer School when he was teaching there. I started relatively late with the Irish music – I was in my 30s. But traditional folk music has always played a role in my life, where I grew up there are many cimbalom bands. But this kind of folk music requires singing, and I’m not much of a singer. So Irish tunes are where I found my musical voice.
Tell me about Rí Ra
It all began with the bass player David, he was already in a predecessor band of Rí Ra, then I joined and the others, we changed the name, started gigging and the rest is history. Regarding the name, none of us speaks Irish, so I asked Petra to write a few Irish words on a sheet of paper because she can speak it and, as an artist, is familiar with the Irish culture. And she sent me like 15 phrases and rírá agus ruaille buaille was one of them. We liked the sound of it, as well as the meaning, which is fun and madness. We felt it was a really fitting name! We changed it a bit because we can't (and don’t really want to) exactly replicate the Irish thing, since we are 6 Czechs. 😊 Well, and this year we will celebrate our 18th anniversary!
Over the years, there have been some special experiences – for example, playing for the Asian Cup in Qatar, you know, as a trio for one month. We even went to play at the Fleadh Festival [Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann, the world's largest celebration of Irish traditional music] in Cavan, 2010. It was very daring of us at that time. 😊 We had only been together for two years, but we sent them a CD and, surprisingly, were chosen, so off we went. Jumping to the recent past, last year we played in Italy at the Montelago Celtic festival – it was quite a success for us. The festival was very large, maybe 15 to 20,000 people. We were selected in the European Celtic Contest as one of four from 60 bands from all over the world, and I couldn't believe it because there were bands from Scotland, Ireland, US, South America. Performing at an event like this kind of validates you, it gives you the feeling like, oh, it's not just your fans and friends always clapping for you in Balbínka. And we also went busking, on the way there, in Verona and Innsbruck – that was an experience we’ll never forget.
Tell me about your association with Balbínka
Well, Balbínka is an underground place that is very cosy, it's very intimate. It's limited in size, but I really love it. It became our home venue, and there's a kind of community around it. And people keep returning, because of the genius loci. Obviously, it's not a commercial place, but for us it's like a second home.
Why is there such interest in Irish culture here?
Well, it's a bizarre kind of thing. No one knows. But Czechs have always loved the traditional music of the British Isles and Ireland. One of the first bands to promote it here since the seventies was Asonance. So their founder, Honza Lašťovička, was one of the first people in the Czech Republic who started doing something in that respect, digging out the songs from archives, mostly Scottish but also Irish ballads. So when I was a teenager, there was a tradition of playing songs around a bonfire, and everyone knew their songs translated to Czech, like Zuzana, the witch of Amesbury. So when, much later, I played with Asonance for several years, that was a great honour for me, really. And talking about that, another important person for the Irish culture in the Czech Republic is the dancer Vašek Bernard, who has been organising Bernard Summer Schools (BSS) for twenty years and brought so many Irish dancers and professional musicians here. Most people involved with Irish music here have attended this school at least once, he did such an amazing piece of work. And on top of it, he regularly posts a monthly review on Irish culture on his website.
Tell me about the “slow sessions”
So, the Slow Sessions is actually a collective thought. I have been approached by Matt Smolko and Máša Klepetková, who came up with this idea, and we started it three years ago. It's a safe space for anyone who wants to play - actively play - Irish music. Actually, it built on BSS. That school was a very intense week of playing and learning, and then the players did not have an opportunity to continue what they learned, you know. We are talking mostly about beginners who went there for the whistle or fiddle classes. I mean, there were some more advanced students, too, but SS was specifically designed for beginners or people who are just starting to get involved in music. Like when you are 40 and you hold a musical instrument for the first time. Because anyone can play in their little cosy room at home, but to go out and pull out the instrument in front of others, even though it's not a public event, it’s a different thing. So we have a list of sets that is online, with some 20 sets already, and we are playing them faster and faster. 😊 There's one regular participant - Kryštof Vanča, a multi-instrumentalist, who has basically become the slow session leader. He also plays the harp and we invite him for our Christmas gigs in Balbínka. Anyway, slow session is a regular thing twice a month, and it's great to see that people who started slow have now moved on into “mid sessions” because they can play faster. And then eventually we all meet at the main “fast” session at Whisky and Kilt, organised by Zdeněk Poledna. For Prague people, I would also like to refer them to this new Irish Trad Music in Prague FB group that was set up by a bunch of Irish music players (Matyas, Matt and Emil). So you can find and share anything to do with Irish music happenings in Prague there.
What are your musical plans for the future?
I have mentioned the anniversary of Rí Ra, which we are going to celebrate at Divadlo na Prádle together with Sona Sól dancers sometime in autumn, still looking for the date. It's gonna be a special evening with guests, similar to the one we had last year in Malostranská Beseda. I mentioned Vašek Bernard, so he went to this Beseda gig and said the dancers really needed a bigger stage, so we are going to do it in a proper theatre this time 😊 Also, we applied to the Fleadh festival to be part of the gig rig, this year it's going to be in Belfast for the first time, so we'll see whether we will be lucky enough to be selected. And talking about the near future, we are playing at Vagon Music Club together with Navostro on 3 February.
Comments