Andrea Šulcová is a flutist, singer-songwriter and music teacher. She is a versatile musician that loves to perform in a wide array of musical genres.
Andrea was born in 1991 in Náchod, Czech Republic, where she grew up surrounded by music and nature. Her first love was folk and country music: thanks to her father, musician in a local band, Andrea started singing and playing the guitar. Soon after she started studying flute at the local music school.
As a teenager she started writing her own songs and compositions. In the same period she started playing with musicians from the local music scene and attending her first jam sessions.
When she turned eighteen she moved to Prague to continue her musical studies and enrolled at the “Jaroslav Ježek” conservatory, the only popular music conservatory in the country. Because of her love for maths and foreign languages she enrolled at the same time at the Prague University of Economics. After graduating from both institutes, Andrea decided to stay in Prague, where she started to work as a freelance musician and put together her jazz quartet.
In 2015 she started to collaborate with “Concept Art Orchestra”, a unique jazz ensemble specialised in contemporary big band music. Andrea fell in love with the project and nowadays she is a regular member of the band and part of the management.
For three years she was also a member of the band “Vesna” as a flutist and vocalist. This project was able to combine music with visual arts and fashion. Andrea had the chance to collaborate with some of the best musicians, dancers and choreographers in the country, and to take part to extraordinary live performances.
In 2016 she moved to Austria to continue her jazz studies at the Kunstuniversität in Graz (Austria), as the first jazz flutist ever studying there and receiving a scholarship from the Czech ministry. She had the honour to study with Heinrich von Kalnein and Julian Arguelles, to perform under conductors such as Ed Partyka and Sigi Feigl and to meet, learn from and play with great musician such as Ingrid Jensen, Seamus Blake and Jerry Bergonzi.
In Graz she started playing with the quintet “Grazias”. They performed several concerts in Austria, Germany and Croatia and recorded an album. In addition Andrea took part to masterclasses with artists such as Melissa Aldana, Jure Pukl and Yotam Silberstein.
In 2018 she was selected and invited to SOFIA (Support of Female Improvising Artists) in Switzerland. After that she was invited by saxophone player Nicole Johänntgen to join her on a tour in Denmark together with Kathrine Winfeld, Stina Andersdotter and Dorota Piotrowska.
In the summer of 2018 Andrea had to put her musical career on hold, due to serious health issues. After a fight that lasted almost two years, Andrea is now back with an even bigger passion for music than before. She picked up her guitar again and wrote music and lyrics for an entire new album that will be released in 2022.
Andrea is now based between Dresden and Prague, where she works as a freelance musician and a passionate music teacher.
INTERESTING FACTS
"An extraordinary multi-instrumentalist Luboš Malina was the one who introduced me to Irish whistles. Every year at Christmas he was writing down Irish songs for me as a material to learn during the year."
"I actually have a very special relationship to a flute. Thanks to a recorder and later flute and the patience of my mom (who doesn't really like any kind of music, yet she practised with me every day all the long notes from a book "Veselé pískání, zdravé dýchání" - "Cheerful playing, healthy breathing") I got completely healthy from a very strong asthma."
"All the basic musical education I got at the music school. The school involved me in all possible ensembles both as a flutist and singer. I have been very grateful to such a system of musical education, where nearly every kid can get it as a leisure time activity and which is not standard in every country."