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.