Otakar Antonín Štefan
Otakar Antonín Štefan from the Czech Republic secured his place in the final of Category II with his clarinet performance.
Otakar Antonín Štefan was born in Prague in 2008. He has played the recorder and the piano since an early age and he began teaching himself the clarinet at the age of ten. He attended clarinet courses under the leadership of Ludmila Peterková and subsequently Professor Milan Polák and Vít Spilka. In 2024, he started studying the clarinet at the Prague Conservatory under Professor Milan Polák. His successes to date include the third prize at an international music competition in Moscow, the first prize at an international music competition in Krakow, the first prize at the Dřevohraní woodwind competition in Litvínov, the Euterpe Music Award in Berlin, the first prize at the Sava Dimitrov International Clarinet Competition in Sofia and an honourable mention at the Amadeus International Piano Competition for young pianists up to fifteen years of age in Brno. At the age of twelve, he performed Jan Evangelista Antonín Koželuh’s E flat Concerto for clarinet and orchestra with the Šluknov Chamber Orchestra.