Professor Moučka was my very first teacher. I remember getting so upset when he first looked at my hands and and with obvious satisfaction called them "great paws". That is not the kind of compliment a 13-year-old likes to hear! But he was such a sweet man, very clever and charming.
		Professor Bedřich Havlík became my teacher at the Brno Conservatory. The first time he entered the classroom I started to tremble, he was so handsome! It was certainly inspiring to have such a good-looking teacher in my teenage years. My ambition was to become his favourite pupil and impress him with my developing cello-playing qualities... Besides his beauty, he is an extremely kind, loving man and a wonderful musician.
		My Professor at the Prague Academy, Alexander Večtomov. Dear Sasa. I immediately fell in love with his vibrato, his glissandi and his sense of humour. My lessons with him were on Wednesdays at 8.00 a.m. and Sasa always seemed surprised how much better I sounded at evening concerts...I had a great time during my studies in Prague and my teacher became a wonderful friend. I could not wait for my graduating concert, so I could at last call him Sasa instead of Mr. Professor - as was the tradition amongst his students. It is very sad that he left us so early.
		André Navarra - I studied with him in summer 1982 at the Accademia Chigiana in Siena. Well, studied... at that time I preferred  to use my stay in the West ( in 1982 it was still a miracle to be able to get out of what was then communist Czechoslovakia) to travel throughout Italy, lying on the beaches and meeting friends, than truly studying with the old man. He actually got quite cross at me when I finally visited his class again - completely sunburnt. Luckily for me I did not understand the tirade of French he fired at me in front of all his pupils and others present! Of course, I could guess what it was about and it was only thanks to my fresh suntan colour that you could not see how much I blushed. Today I feel sorry about my "tourist" approach to that time with Navarra. I guess I was too young and silly to appreciate his great qualities.
		Paul Tortelier. He was one of my teachers at the Piatigorsky seminar in Los Angeles. It was impressive to meet the cello legend and I enjoyed his charismatic personality.
		It was unexpectedly hard to leave my homeland, and everything I knew and loved, behind and start a new life in Denmark. The East-West confrontation, the climate, the language, a different mentality, no concert possibilities. Only the cello was the same and luckily, there was a great cellist living in Copenhagen at that time - Erling Bløndal Bengtsson. A real maestro whose life is devoted to the cello. As soon as I could, I joined his solo class at the Royal Conservatory in Copenhagen. To be his student and play for him were amongst the highlights of my life and helped me through a difficult time.
		I have always been a great admirer of Jacqueline du Pré and it was my big dream to meet her. I could not do so while living in Prague. But after I moved to Denmark and had the possibility to travel, I wanted to realise my old dream. I was awarded a scholarship which made it economically possible and so I started to plan the journey. But too late. Jacqueline died in October 1987. I have to admit that my decision to study with William Pleeth was dictated by a desire to folow in Jacqueline´s footsteps and meet her beloved teacher. I felt so special on entering his house and playing in the room where Jackie once used to play. All my lessons were in that spirit, as if she was still there somewhere, and I loved being able to feel so close to my idol and to learn as much as possible about her.
		Slava! How can one describe the immense fireworks that blaze within him! I could dedicate a home page of its own just to give an account of my first lesson with him. He it was who started an earthquake in my head and finally freed me from the need to seek any more teachers. Since then I have felt that I can always find the answer to any musical question within myself. For my lessons with him, I actually did not need to have the cello with me. His teaching was more about the essence of cello playing, of music making, rather than the pedantic correction of particulars - and it has opened my ears in a new way and made me anxious to seek for a new and purer ideal. SONYclassical FanFaire 1997 EMIclassics Cello Works Premiered by Rostropovich
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