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Lubomír Brabec is one of the country’s most brilliant guitarists and many rank him among the best guitar plyers in the world. In a career spanning over four decades he has captivated audiences at home and abroad, and recorded around 30 CDs. Critics have high praise for his immaculate technique as well as his inventive and original approach to music. Lubomír Brabec's many recordings include works by Bach, Handel, Vivaldi, Janáček and Prokofiev, but also Spanish music and hits by McCartney. In 1997 he became the first musician in the world to perform

Czech organist and jazz musician Ondřej Pivec features on this year’s Grammy Award-winning album Take Me to the Alley by Gregory Porter. The Czech musician, who currently works and resides in New York, has recorded five albums under his own name and appeared on more than thirty as an accompanist. He currently leads an r&b-jazz-pop band called Kennedy Administration and plays the organ in a gospel church choir in Brooklyn.

Kayos, which came out last year, is the excellent fourth LP by the Olomouc-based outfit Flash the Readies. They started out in the mid-2000s as an indie group but today have a post-rock sound that should appeal greatly to fans of Mogwai or Godspeed You! Black Emperor. Though comprising only five tracks, Kayos takes listeners on an atmospheric, psychedelic and frequently epic, journey.

Toxique are a Czech electronic pop and R&B band who have been around for a number of years (the group was founded by five graduates from Prague's Institute of Chemical Technology) whose lead singer Klára Vytisková is also a well-known TV personality (as a jury member on the Czech and Slovak version of Pop Idol) and all around fashion trendsetter. In 2013, she also embarked on a solo career.

Czech folk legend Jarmila Šuláková, who died this week at the age of 87, brought Moravian folk music to audiences around the world. The „queen of folk“ sang from the heart as she liked to say and she had the same esprit at 30 as she did at 80, singing both with traditional folk ensembles as well as the folk-rock group Fleret which opened the world of folk music to younger audiences. In the course of a career spanning more than six decades she recorded over a dozen albums and performed thousands of concerts at home and abroad.

The latest album of Martinů’s compositions by one of the Czech Republic’s leading chamber ensembles, the Smetana Trio, has received nomination for a prestigious BBC Music Magazine Award. The album, featuring the complete piano trios by Bohuslav Martinů, was released on the Supraphon label last year and has already been chosen as the magazine’s Disc of the Month in June 2016. Smetana Trio was founded back in 1936 and currently comprises pianist Jitka Čechová, violinist Jiří Vodička and cellist Jan Páleníček.

Lazer Viking and Sabrehart’s exuberant joint seven-track LP Flesh Cadillac was one of the more intriguing local releases of 2016. Lazer Viking is the stage name of Jakub Kaifosz, who is also in the band Wild Tides, DJs on Radio Wave and is an editor at Vice magazine. Sabrehart, meanwhile, is Prague-based English musician, composer and producer Stephen Abrehart. Polished and poppy but idiosyncratic and characterful, the collaborators’ compelling Flesh Cadillac – which perhaps surprisingly came out on BiggBoss, the Czech Republic’s premiere hip hop

Young Czech singer Lenny is a singer/songwriter as well as pianist with a unique voice, who has been described as one of the most promising new talents from the Czech Republic. The daughter of well-known performer Lenka Filipová, Lenny etched out her own place on the music scene with a rock/pop sound and a beautiful husky voice that is reminiscent of Janis Joplin or Bonnie Tyler.

In today’s edition of Sunday Music Show we will be playing a new album by David Dorůžka, one of the country’s most distinguished jazz musicians and an exceptionally talented guitarist. The album, called Autumn Leaves, was released in December after a pause of eight years. Recorded in a trio with bassists Jiří Slavík and drummer Martin Novák, it features five new pieces by Dorůžka along with melodies from Jewish music, a song written by classical composer Bohuslav Martinů and an old jazz tune from the 1930s and two pieces by Jiří Slavík.

In today’s edition of Sunday Music Show we mark the 90th birthday of Zuzana Růžičková, one of the world’s leading harpsichordists. Despite enduring three concentration camps as well as Communist persecution, Zuzana Růžičková pursued her dream of becoming a professional musician. During her long career, she released around one hundred albums and became the first person to record Bach's complete works for keyboard, which have just recently been re-issued.