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Martin Smolka (born in Prague 1959) studied composition at the Academy of Performing Arts and also privately with Marek Kopelent. In 1983 Smolka co-founded Agon, an ensemble specialising in the present and past of the musical avant-garde. He served as its artistic director and player of prepared piano until 1998. In 1996 Smolka published together with Petr Kofron a book and compact disc titled „Grafické partitury a koncepty / Graphic Scores and Sketches“(Czech-English).
Besides his artistic activities in composition Smolka also performs as a musical improviser – for the Vizita-Theatre from 1983 to 1986 and again since 2002, for Ivan Vyskocil’s „Kuchyn“ (Kitchen) in 1988/89 and for the theatrical studio „Cisté radosti“ (Pure Joy) from 1994 to 2001. He arranged for and played in the group led by the Chinese singer Feng-jün Song for the compact disc „Horská karavana“ (Mountain Caravan, 2001). He also composed for theatre and for film. Since autumn 2003 Smolka has been teaching composition at the Janácek Academy of Performing Arts in Brno.
Smolka has written for prestigious international festivals such as the Warsaw Autumn Festival, the Donaueschinger Musiktage, Eclat Stuttgart, Wittener Tage für neue Kammermusik, Musik-Biennale Berlin, musica viva Munich, Prague Spring Festival and Bang on a can-Marathon (New York). Many chamber woks have been recorded by Agon for Arta Records and Audio ego. „rain ...“ and „Walden“ have been selected by col legno for the yearly published portrait CDs of the Donaueschinger Musiktage. In 2009, Smolka was awarded the „ad libitum“-prize for composition by the Winfried Böhler Kultur Stiftung (Stuttgart) for his „Five etudes for choir“.
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