He comes from a musical family, his father Josef Špaček is a cellist with the Czech Philharmonic, his younger brother Petr Špaček is also a cellist.
He has been playing the violin since he was six years old. His first cantors were Hana Metelková, Pavel Prantl, then Jaroslav Foltýn at the Prague Conservatory. Already after his first year at the conservatory, he was accepted to the prestigious Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where he studied in the years 2004-2009 with prof. Idy Kavafiana, in 2004-2006 in the class of Jaime Laredo, in 2007-2008 with prof. She frowned at Askhenasi. From the age of 13, he also took part in many musical violin courses under the guidance of Stephen Shipps, R. Ricci, Milan Vítek, Václav Hudeček and Bohuslav Matoušek.
From September 2009, he continued his studies at the Juilliard School in New York in the class of Itzhak Perlman, which he completed in May 2011. In June 2011, when he was twenty-three years old, he became the youngest concertmaster in the history of the Czech Philharmonic. ended in the 2019/2020 season and subsequently remained guest concert master of the Czech ensemble.
He has been performing at concerts and festivals since childhood. He collaborated with conductors Christoph Eschenbach, Manfred Honeck, Jiří Bělohlávek, Ondrej Lenárd, Ondřej Kukal, Juri Gilb, František Preissler, Jakub Hrůša, Andreas Weiser, Aleksandar Marković, Jaroslav Krček and others. As a soloist, he performed with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Czech Philharmonic, Prague Chamber Philharmonic, Bohuslav Martinů Zlín Philharmonic, Hradec Králové Philharmonic, Czech Chamber Orchestra, Pardubice Chamber Philharmonic, Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra, Russian Chamber Orchestra St. Petersburg, the Berg Chamber Orchestra, the Brno Philharmonic and the Barocco semper giovane ensemble.
He performed on stages in Denmark, Finland, Germany, England, France, USA, Switzerland, Japan, Poland and New Zealand. In 2007, Josef participated as concertmaster of the New York String Orchestra Seminar, where he performed at two concerts in Carnegie Hall, in 2009 he performed there as concertmaster of the Curtis Orchestra.
In 2006, he released his debut CD with a complete set of six Ysay sonatas for solo violin, Op. 27. In 2010, together with the pianist Gordon Back, he recorded a complete CD with the works of Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst, which was released by the Naxos record company in 2013. In April 2013, Supraphon released Josef Špaček's new CD with Slavic music. The CD includes a sonata by Leoš Janáček, Duo Z domoviny by Bedřich Smetana and two sonatas by Sergei Prokofiev: one for solo violin and the other for violin and piano.
Julie Eskaer is currently 1st. concertmaster of the Danish Chamber Orchestra and has performed as a soloist with several orchestras in Denmark and abroad.
An avid chamber musician, Ms. Eskar has been playing in many different major festivals around the world such as Prussia Cove (England), Horten (Norway), Norfolk, USA, Incontri in Terra di Siena, BIMF (Italy), Tivoli (Denmark), etc. performing aside musicians such as Boris Berman, Jeremy Denk, Clive Greensmith, Thomas Demenga, Ralph Kirsbaum, Michael Kannen, Antonio Lysy, Alberto Lysy, Vilde Frang, Ani Kavafian, Ettore Causa, etc.
Julie Eskar is a founding member of the Eskar Trio, an international award-winning ensemble. The Trio has established a reputation for itself as one of the leading ensembles on the Danish chamber music stage and has also enjoyed great success in Sweden, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Portugal, Japan, China and the Netherlands. The Trio has released several critically acclaimed CDs including the complete Brahms piano trios and works by Ravel and Chausson that was awarded as “Best CD of the Month” in The Strad. The Eskar Trio’s second CD featuring never-before recorded Danish Romantic piano trios was awarded ‘Best Chamber Music Recording’ and ‘Best Classical Recording of the Year’ by the Danish Radio Music Awards.
Beside from being a member of The Eskaer Trio, Julie is a founding member of Arabella String Quartet. The quartet’s debut CD, titled “In the Moment” was released by Naxos Records in 2017 and received glowing reviews. Furthermore the quartet will release their second CD on Naxos in the spring of 2022, featuring works of Chevalier de Saint-Georges. Ms. Eskar studied under Professor Milan Vitek at the Danish Royal Academy of Music in Copenhagen and with Professor Gerhard Schultz at the University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna. She has also worked under the guidance of Alberto Lysy, Ana Chumachenco, Christian Tetzlaff and Ivry Gitlis.
