Irena Szurmanová

Irena Szurmanová (1967), composer, arranger, pianist and teacher,

graduated in 1991 from the “Ostrava Conservatory” in the fields of composition and piano. Then she continued to study composition under the guidance of prof. Svatopluk Havelka at the “Music Art Academy” in Prague. 

Since she finished her studies, she's been teaching composition, music theory and piano improvisation at “Janáček Conservatory” in Ostrava. She’s also been composing, arranging and collaborating as a pianist with several other soloists (Ivo Hrachovec Patricia Janečková, Barbora Jirásková, Anna Butkiewicz), choirs and other ensembles, such as “Janáček Philharmonic Ostrava”. At the same time she’s the artistic director of the “Irena Szurmanová Choir”.

Amongst other work, Irena collaborated on the arrangements of the  various recordings, such as “Hallelujah” by Martin Chodúr and “Janáčkova Philharmonic Ostrava”, the “Christmas”  and “From Ostrava to the World” for the “Janáčkova Conservatory” in Ostrava and also “Evening when the bells are ringing” with Ivo Hrachovec. Occasionally, she also collaborates with “Primary Art School” Třinec. The Choir Society Martinů has been collaborating with this extremely talented artist since 2010. On the 55th anniversary since the Choir was founded, Irena created adaptations of four folk songs (“Halekačky Aj z hory, doly”, folk song of Ostravice "Galán čarovaný”, folk song of Rajhrad "Příčina pláče” and slovakian  folk song - “Číže sú to koně”). PSM then performed these adaptations on a concert tour across southern Bohemia, at the festival in Paris in 2011 and also at the traditional annual concert, which is always highly rated by people and critics.

After this very successful collaboration, PSM’s conductor Michal Zátopek asked Irena for another contribution for his Choir - this time the task was to make adjustments to traditional Christmas carols. These world-famous Christmas songs (“Adeste FIdeles”, “Lo how a rose e’er blooming”, “Les Anges dans nos Campagnes”, “Dzisiaj w Betlejem”, “The First Noel” and “Joy to the World”) were then presented at the PSM’s Christmas concert in the same year, where Irena herself accompanied the Choir during. In the next year, more carols adaptations were added, such as “Maria durch ein Dorwald ging” and “Kristus pán se narodil”.

We believe that this fruitful collaboration between Irena and PSM will continue in the future and therefore will bring joy both to the audience and PSM singers themselves.