ABOUT

Duo Rydén & Rehák

Duo Rydén & Rehák consists of Johannes Rydén (cello) and Milan Řehák (accordion). They met at the
Royal College of Music in Stockholm in 2015 and have since performed regularly.
The focus of the repertoire is mainly on music by Astor Piazzolla and other composers within “Nuevo
tango”, but also they have a program consisting of music by, among others, Debussy, Satie and Saint-
Saens in their own arrangements for cello and accordion. They have also performed music by the Czech
composer Jiří Teml.
The duo has performed in Stockholm at the Konstakademien, Musikaliska, the Music Academy and
several times at the Accordion Festival in Stockholm. In the spring of 2017, they created together with
dancers Simon Rydén and Michelle Persson a dance performance, “2 (Duo)”. In 2018/19, the duo was one
of the ensembles included in the range for children and young people within the Länsmusiken in
Stockholm with their performance “Music around the world”. In this project they present music that is
typical for a number of different countries. The show, which is also mixed with short presentations and
projections of the countries, offers arias from Opera, Balkan and Irish tunes, Chinese traditional music,
Czardas and many other things.
The duo was selected as one of five ensembles to participate in the Swedish chamber music association
competition “Ung och lovande” in Västerås 2019.
Milan Řehák, accordionist
Milan Řehák (b.1994) is currently one of the most notable and progressive Czech accordionists. He
is a graduate of the Prague conservatory (2015) and the Royal College of Music in Stockholm (2019).

He started to play the accordion at the age of six at the Elementary music school in his hometown -
Čelákovice. As a child, he was very successful, he has won the 1st prize in the solo category at the Central
competition of Elementary music schools in the Czech Republic, and the 2nd prize in the category of
chamber music. He has won the 2nd prize at the competition for jazz and dance orchestras with ‘E-quintet’
music group and obtained an award for outstanding musical expression.

However, he achieved the biggest competition and concert successes at the Prague conservatory as a
student of Josef Hřebík, and with support of Ladislav Horák, and afterwards, at the Royal College of Music
in Stockholm as a student of Anita Agnas.

▪ Accordion competition of conservatories in Pardubice 2010 – 1st Prize

▪ International accordion competition in Pula 2011 – 1st Prize (Croatia)
▪ International accordion competition in Castelfidardo – participation in the finals (Italy)
▪ International accordion competition in Pula 2012 – 1st Prize and the absolute victory and the
highest pointed of all soloists (Croatia)
▪ International accordion competition in Klingenthal 2012 – 4th Prize (Germany)
▪ International accordion competition in Ostrava – 1st Prize
▪ Accordion competition of conservatories in Pardubice 2013 – 2nd Prize and the award for
interpretation of contemporary music
▪ International accordion competition in Saint Petersburg 2015 – 1st Prize and the award for
interpretation of contemporary music.

Probably the most important one of those awards is the absolute victory in Pula (2012). This victory has
brought him many opportunities such as a concert for the European Broadcasting Union, concert at the
Prague Music Festival as the main guest of Václav Hudeček, or invitations to appear in television shows.

He has also performed at festivals in Stockholm, Dresden, Salzburg and Expo in Milano. During the
years, he has been able to collaborate with several great musicians and groups such as Jaroslav Svěcený,
Lubomír Brabec, Czech trio, Bohumír Hanžlík Orchestra, Bardolino Band, State Opera in Prague,
Musikaliska, and many others.

He has officially released several CDs and EPs – Buttonfield (2016), Baroque Beat (2017), Uncharted
Waters (2017), Aerial (2018), Aerial vol. 2 (2019), Stories (2019). He is also very active in the area of music
and video production. He makes original music videos for different accordion pieces. All the videos are
available on his YouTube channel ‘Milan Řehák official’. Apart from the accordion, performing and media
production, he enjoys painting and nature.

His repertoire includes mainly original accordion compositions, baroque pieces and virtuoso
transcriptions. Currently, he is also very active in genres of Crossover and Tango. He collaborates with
Swedish cellist Johannes Rydén with whom he is very active in Tango Nuevo genre and as a duo, they
participated at the finals of Ung & Lovande chamber music competition 2019. He applies his technical and
musical abilities not only in the area of classical music, but also in popular genres. Milan Řehák
addresses the audiences mainly with his convincing interpretation and individual, original expression.

Johannes Rydén, cellist

Born in 1994. Johannes started to play the cello at the age of 8 at the local music school in Stockholm.
Both his grandparents were organists and his father is a great admirer of classical music and also a keen
amateur cellist.

Between 2008–2013 he studied with the Swedish/Hungarian cellist Judit Ullén at the Music school of Lilla
Akademien in Stockholm. There he got the opportunity to perform concerts with various ensembles at all
the major concert venues in Stockholm: Konserthuset, Berwaldhallen (Radio Symphony hall), Musikaliska,
the Royal Opera House and Confidencen Theatre.

He was a member of SNYO (Swedish National Youth Orchestra) from 2010–2012 and in 2010 played with
the orchestra at the Baltic Sea festival in Stockholm, Berwaldhallen, under the baton of Esa-Pekka Salonen
and their following tour in the U.S with conductor Tonu Kaljuste where they performed in Chicago
Symphony hall and Carnegie Hall. In 2013 he was accepted to the Royal college of Music in Stockholm in
the class of prof. Ola Karlsson. He graduated in the spring of 2018.

In the summer of 2014 he participated in Orkester Norden with conductor Tomas Sondergaard in Aalborg.
In 2015 he participated in the Ensemble Akademie in Freiburg and took part in lessons with members from
the contemporary ensemble, Ensemble Recherche. He has participated in courses and festivals in Sweden
and abroad, Östergötlands musikdagar, Aurora Festival, Amsterdam Conservatory summer school of
early music, Cambridge early music, Voksenåsen masterclasses in Oslo, Kammarmusik på Lundsberg and
Amsterdam cello Biennale. He has played in masterclasses for Thorleif Thedeén, Mats Lidström, Henrik
Brendstrup, Natalie Clein, Jakob Kullberg and Peter Bruns among others.

Johannes have been principal cellist for KMH Symphony orchestra (Royal college of music in Stockholm)
and have worked as a substitute cellist in Gävle Symphony (Sweden) and Drottningholms Baroque
ensemble.

In the summer of 2017 he was selected as one of the 15 musicians to be a part of the orchestra in
Vadstenaakademien in Vadstena, Sweden, in their production of the opera "The importance of being
Earnest" composed and conducted by B. Tommy Andersson. He was also awarded with a special
scholarship for his outstanding playing in the orchestra.

In april 2019 he participated together with the accordionist Milan Rehak as one of five selected ensembles
in the chamber music competition “Ung och lovande“ in Västerås, Sweden.

Johannes plays an instrument built in 2011 by Peter Westerlund.