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Vox Clamans is an international chamber ensemble specializing in early music, specifically early baroque, and we are exploring renaissance medieval music as well. We are four young early music specialists: soprano Veronika Vojířová, cornettist Miroslav Kůzl,
dulzianist Meike Theis, and harpsichordist and artistic leader, Jan Hajič.
There are great things to be found in the heart of every person that are easily lost among our many worries and challenges of daily life, and music is one of the best pathways to remind one of these existential matters, to re-open these doors within ourselves. Music has the power to make it present that we are not merely ashes to ashes, dust to dust, cogs in a machine; that in our hearts there is great love, dignity, sadness, hope, fear, passion; perhaps – God. We see our musical ability as an opportunity to challenge our audience, so that they connect with these roots of the soul. Among the infinite opportunities for entertainment that are available today, we believe facilitating an encounter with the transcendental is something different and worthwhile.
While what we described above does aspire to be objective, our focus on early baroque and older music is purely personal.
We simply love this music the most.
(Of course, the repertoire for individual performances is tailored to the specific occasion.)
Coming up
Coming up
July 30th, 2023, Totenkirche Neckarbischofsheim, 20:00: Love / Death / Sacrifice.
October 14th, 2023, Leinsweiler, 18:00: Surgamus ad Vineas.
February 1st, 2024: Walldorf: Licht ins Dunkle.
Concert sample
Concert sample
We present a sample of four pieces from our concert on Totensonntag/Ewigkeitsonntag (Sunday of remembrance for the blessed deceased, and of contemplating eternity) in Neckarbischofsheim, Germany, in one of the first Lutheran-built churches from the beginning of the 16th century.
00:00 - Erhöre mich (Heinrich Schütz)
A piece from the well-known collection Kleine Geistliche Konzerte in our "default" instrumentation. In keeping with the anxious affect of the prayer, we chose to not raise the third on the ultima.
02:55 - Ich werde nicht sterben (Heinrich Schütz)
A very different later Schütz piece that is structurally a small-scale cantata. Supporting the stark contrast in affect of the two pieces -- here the joy of staying alive, quite keenly felt by so many of us during Covid times (and how intensely it must be felt each day by many in Ukraine!), Meike and Mirek use recorders.
08:40 - Canzona sesta (Giovanni Picchi)
Instrumental piece to provide "aural hygiene" after the intense messages of the previous two pieces. The canzona provides a relatively rare opportunity to showcase the raw, intense sound of the tenor dulcian as a solo instrument.
12:11 - Helft mir Gotts Güte preisen (Johann Hermann Schein)
We return to our default instrumentation in this practically unknown chamber piece by Schütz's less renowned but no less interesting colleague, Johann Hermann Schein. The piece was chosen specifically because Totensonntag is the last Sunday of the Lutheran church year, and Schein's text expliclty mentiones this: "This year is ending, and the new year is not far."
About us
About us
The current members of the ensemble are Veronika Vojířová, Miroslav Kůzl, Meike Theis, and Jan Hajič.
The history of the ensemble goes back to 2019, when Jan Hajič and Veronika Vojířová got the opportunity to play at a charity concert series in Prague. They wanted to collaborate with a cornetto and found Miroslav Kůzl. In 2020, they played in Brno and again in Prague at the St. Wenceslas Musical Festivities; in 2021, they performed at the Musica ad Confluentem festival in the southern Bohemian capital Budweis (collaborating with Jakub Michl on the viola da gamba). In 2022, Veronika and Jan met Meike at the Hanse-Ensemble masterclass in Lübeck, and we hit it off very quickly: already in November 2022, we played together in liturgy in Prague and then had our first concert in Germany, and we are looking forward towards our next concert there in the summer of 2023 (which will have a new theme: Love and Sacrifice).
Veronika Vojířová
Veronika Vojířová
Veronika Vojířová is one of the new promising faces in the world of Czech early music. Within a few years, she has gone from being a participant of the Holešov and Valtice early music courses to a collaborator of leading Czech early music ensembles: Collegium Marianum, where she sang alongside Hana Blažíková, and the allied Capella Mariana, with whom she performed at the Summer Festivals of Early Music; she sang many times with Musica Florea, i.a. as a soloist in 2021 and at the Prague Spring Festival 2019; she has also performed with Capella Regia Praha under Robert Hugo, or Capella Ornamentata under Richard Šeda. In 2023, whe performed and recorded the late medieval music of Johannes Tourout with Corina Marti. In addition to her concert activities, she is currently studying at the Academy of Early Music at the Faculty of Arts of Masaryk University.
Miroslav Kůzl
Miroslav Kůzl
Miroslav Kůzl, born on 1st December, 1987, studied clarinet at the Musical Conservatoire in České Budějovice under the supervision of MgA. Václav Hruška and MgA. Petr Vašek. During his studies, he started to find an interest in interpretation of early music. He started playing cornetto in 2011 under the supervision of Richard Šeda. Miroslav then extended his study experience at interpretation seminars run by world-famous cornetto players, e.g. Judith Pacquier, Gebhardt David, Frithijof Smith, etc. At the moment, Miroslav is a permanent member of the Dresden music ensemble Cappella Sagittariana Dresden, he performs with Czech and German leading ensembles interpreting the music of the 17th century, and takes part in recording CDs. Alongside performing, he works as a music teacher in Třeboň.
Meike Theis
Meike Theis
Meike Theis is a recorder player, dulcian player, bassoonist, and musicologist. With her diverse profile she connects practice with science and the ars nova with the music of today. She studied musicology and recorder in Dresden. With the historical bassoon and the Renaissance transverse flute she continued her studies in the field of historical interpretation practice in Frankfurt. She met Veronika Vojířová at the Hanse-Ensemble masterclass in Lübeck in 2022, joined the ensemble right afterwards, playing in liturgy in Prague and then for their first concert in Germany in November, and thus the ensemble was truly completed.
Jan Hajič
Jan Hajič
Jan Hajič is the harpsichordist, organist, and artistic leader of the ensemble. He is finishing a masters in harpsichord at the Janáček Academy in Brno, with focus on renaissance/early baroque music, improvisation and ensemble leadership. Previously he has studied also in The Hague with Fabio Bonizzoni. In addition to the ensembles Vox Clamans, he leads Camerata Brunensis for 18th century chamber music, and Rosa Mystica, for larger-scale 16th and 17th century works. He already works as an accompanist at the Janáček Academy; other highlights of his continuo experience are multiple years of accompanying in a summer masterclass of Andreas Scholl, opera projects with Capella Regia Praha and Musica Florea, and "guest harpsichordist" appearances with the Karlovy Vary Symphony Orchestra and Symphonic Orchestra of the Czech Radio. He serves as an organist at the St. Salvator's Academic Parish in Prague and sings chant in Latin liturgy.
Outside of music, he holds a Ph.D. in computer science with a focus on machine learning.
Past concerts
Past concerts
July 30th, 2023, Totenkirche Neckarbischofsheim: Love / Death / Sacrifice.
November 20th, 2022, Stadtkirche Neckarbischofsheim: In Frieden
September 6th, 2020, Musica ad Confluentem early music festival, České Budějovice: O Sacrum Convivium
November 20th, 2019, St. Wenceslas Musical Festivities early music festival, Prague: In Honor of the Victims Thirty Years' War
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