Author: Katerina Holubova
Location: Brno
Lukás Conka is a nineteen year-old Romany boy, who now studies at the Junior High School for the Arts in Kosice, Slovakia. The violin means everything to him. He fills up every moment of spare time by picking up the violin and starting to play.
I knew the story about how he came to the violin when he was still a child. So I asked him to tell it to me.
"Music was brought to me mostly by my family, my mother’s brothers, the Bagárs. My father and my grandfather were also musicians. It is an inheritance from generation to generation. I am the third generation.
When I was seven, I went to music school, which I attended for one year. Then I had a two-year break. When I was ten I started to take classes with Professor Kaderábková and I was there one year also. Then she took ill and stopped teaching. So when I was twelve I started with Professor Vancura at the private school of the arts in Brno. I went there for seven years. After that I applied to the Junior High School for the Arts in Kosice, and I was accepted. This school is not only oriented towards classical music. They also teach jazz, folklore and acting. I went there primarily because of one person, Mr. Karel Adam, the director of the Romany theater group Romathan. He is one of the best violinists in either Slovakia or the Czech Republic. It is a great honor for me to be his pupil.
I like classical, jazz and folk songs best. Once I’ve finished studying, I will be able to teach at elementary level music schools.
I would be content if my future children played at least for the mental exercise of it. I would like my daughter to sing and play piano and my son to play violin. It will depend on them. I won’t force them.
My dream is to play until I’m forty-five or fifty and then teach in my old age.”
Here I would just like to add: may his hand with the bow in it do what he wants, and may his dream become a reality.
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