Iva Bittová

Singer and violinist Iva Bittová stands among the rare Czech performers who have sustained careers that extend well beyond national borders. Audiences worldwide responded to her distinctive vocal approach, her magnetic stage presence, and her taste for melodies poised between experimental edges and childlike playfulness, even though her strongest following has always remained concentrated in Eastern Europe.

Born on July 7, 1958, in Bruntal, Moravia, she was the middle daughter in a household steeped in music. Her father, Koloman Bitto, performed on guitar, trumpet, and double bass within both folk and classical groups, while her mother, Ludmila Bittová, a certified educator, sang professionally in vocal ensembles throughout her career. Frequent job changes for her father kept the family moving between towns during Iva’s early years. She studied ballet and violin, taking on juvenile roles in stage productions. Once the family established itself in Brno, she shifted her focus to theater and finished her drama training at college. For a decade she worked steadily as an actress in television and appeared in several Czech films, among them Jaromil Jires’ Ostrov Stribrnych Volavek and Zápisník Zmizeleho.

Early in the 1980s Bittová returned to the violin, studying with Rudolf Stastny while cultivating an idiosyncratic vocal language built from whispers, grunts, moans, and a buoyant, almost mischievous timbre. Her initial musical collaborator was drummer Pavel Fajt, whose affiliations included Dunaj, Pluto, and the Danubians; together they issued the 1985 album Bittová & Fajt. She also put out solo EPs and recorded with Dunaj, remaining a member of that influential avant-rock ensemble from 1985 through 1988. Their second album, Svatba, reached international listeners via Review Records, drawing the attention of ex-Henry Cow drummer Chris Cutler and guitarist Fred Frith. Frith included the duo in his 1989 film and soundtrack Step Across the Border, which opened doors to audiences outside Eastern Europe and launched their first tours abroad.

Bittová’s debut full-length solo record appeared on Pavian in 1991, followed in 1992 by River of Milk, her initial American release. Throughout the mid-1990s she concentrated on solo work, releasing two further albums for BMG; she wrapped up her partnership with Fajt and Dunaj on the 1995 album Pustit Musís and ventured into classical repertoire with recitals and a recording of Béla Bartók violin duets alongside Dorothea Kellerová.

In 1997 she joined guitarist Vladimír Václavek of Rale to record Bílé Inferno for Indies. That project, together with her self-titled 1998 Nonesuch solo album, renewed her international visibility and led to appearances at major European festivals. The same year she and Dorothea Kellerová released Béla Bartók: 44 Duo for Two Violins.

Opening the new century, Bittová collaborated with the Nederlands Blazers Ensemble on Dance of the Vampires, an album of her own compositions. In 2001 she reunited with Václavek for Čikori. Two years later the Škampa Quartet backed her in a program of Leoš Janáček songs titled Moravian Folk Poetry in Songs. In 2005 she worked with Bang on a Can on Elida, another set of original pieces.

Her relationship with ECM Records began in 2006 with Mater, featuring songs by Slovakian composer Vladimír Godár. The following year she contributed vocals and violin to bassist George Mraz’s Moravian Gems. In 2012 she recorded Zvon with the Prague Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra; the Czech release surveyed her own compositions and included guitarists David and Vladimir Václavek among earlier associates. Her self-titled ECM album followed in 2013. The next year she issued the entirely solo Entwine/Proplétám on Pavian, with Supraphon handling Western distribution, while Pavian also released the self-titled album by the Czech free-jazz collective Nocz & Iva Bittová. In 2015 Animal Records put out Eviyan, her project with guitarist-composer Gyan Riley and clarinetist-composer Evan Ziporyn. She rejoined the Čikori quartet in 2017 for At Home, their first recording together in fifteen years, and that year also saw the digital-only New Cicada Trio: Live in Beacon, documenting performances with longtime collaborators Timothy Hill and David Rothenberg.