48 views
Medialon, a Czech artistic bookbinder, musician, teacher and master bookbinder in the field of artistic bookbinding. He spent his youth in Nové Hrady. In the years 1956–1959, he studied accordion and clarinet at the Military Music School in Roudnice nad Labem. After his studies, he was assigned to the regimental military music in Český Krumlov. His interest in music pedagogy led him to study at the State Conservatory in Pilsen, where in 1969 he graduated from František Vacovský's clarinet. He began working as a teacher in the mid-1960s at the Folk Art School in Volhynia. In 1972, he transferred to the Folk Art School in Strakonice. In the years 1977–1979 he taught externally at the University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice. In the years 1982–1984 he taught at the Folk Art School in Trhové Sviny and in the years 1984–1991 at the Pilsen Conservatory. Several generations of professional clarinetists graduated under his guidance (e.g. František Bláha, Václav Hruška, Pavel Brázda or Milan Srb). Due to the lack of literature for beginning clarinetists, he compiled the Clarinet Playing School. He holds three patents for teaching aids and tactile charts. In the 1970s and 1980s, he began studying hand-made book binding under the guidance of Jindřich Hodný in Týn nad Vltavou, Jiří Faltus in Žamberk, Jindřich Svoboda in Brno or Ján Vrtílek in Žilina. From 1993, he worked at the Department of Art Culture of the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen as the head of the book binding studio. His works are chosen as gifts for important personalities, e.g. Václav Havel, Václav Klaus or Pope Benedict XVI. In 2001, he moved to Přeštice and opened a private Bookbinding Studio here. For the city of Přeštice, he made a cassette for historical seals and for the city museum in Přeštice three representative visitor books. He is a member of the Union of Visual Artists in Pilsen, the Association of Czech Bibliophiles, the Jakub Jan Ryba Association and a contributing member of the Association for the Preservation of Historical Monuments in Přeštic.