During her underground tenure Bittova met percussionist Pavel Fajt, with whom she recorded a well-received collaborative album and co-founded the alternative rock band Dunaj. (The pair were partners for 13 years and have two sons; Matous, who still lives in the Czech Republic, and Tony, a music composition student at Bard College.) Bittova and Fajt's second duo album, 1987's Svatba (The Wedding) (Review Records), caught the ears of drummer Chris Cutler and guitarist Fred Frith, both solo artists and former members of the influential British avant rock band Henry Cow. The Englishmen's fascination with the Czechs' music led to the latter's appearance in Step Across the Border, a 1990 documentary about Frith, and early '90s collaborative performances in New York and Western Europe that also included the late cellist Tom Cora. "[Bittova's music] was very fresh, an arresting combination of classical sound, traditional singing, and rock energy," Frith says. "And more than anything, she had theatrical flair, she owned the stage and held the audience seemingly without effort. She once came to Paris for a concert with me and we rehearsed some songs during the afternoon. Over dinner I broke it to her that actually this was going to be a completely improvised concert. She just laughed and said, 'Fine!' Completely unfazed and able to let go. There's no one else like her, and her music is beyond restrictive categories. It just is."
After a pair of EPs, Bittova made her self-titled solo debut in 1991 on the Pavian label; River of Milk (EVA Records) arrived later that year and was followed by a string of albums on BMG and Nonesuch that raised her profile significantly outside her homeland. Some of her key collaborations over the years have included 44 Dueta pro Dvoje Housle (1997, Rachot Behemot Records), an album of Bela Bartok violin duets with Dorothea Kellerova, and projects with the Netherlands Wind Ensemble, the Prague Philharmonia, jazz bassist George Mraz, ambient composer and DJ Susumu Yokota, and 2006's Mater (Pavian Records), a cantata by composer Vladimir Godar. The latter, a solemn meditation on motherhood recorded with orchestral players and the Bratislava Conservatory Choir, led to a deal with the boundary-shattering label ECM Records, which reissued the disc and last year released Iva Bittova (not to be confused with the earlier, similarly named album cited above). A set of stark "Fragments" for violin, voice, and kalimba, it profoundly captures the essence of her technique.
In 2003 Bittova performed in an adaptation of Mozart's "Don Giovanni" at Bard College for its annual SummerScape festival and was instantly enchanted by the area. "I said to Tony, 'Wouldn't it be nice to try to live here for one year?'" she says. "I was ready for a change, so in 2007 we moved. I came here with just two pieces of luggage." Since making her American inroads Bittova has worked with a Who's Who of inventive US musicians that includes Don Byron, Hamid Drake, Bill Frisell, Bobby McFerrin, and Marc Ribot. She also has a lengthy history with contemporary classical collective Bang on a Can, recording Elida (Indies Records) with the organization in 2006 and composing music for its offshoot group, the Bang on a Can All-Stars. Among her Bang on a Can cohorts are clarinetist Evan Ziporyn and pianist Gyan Riley (the son of composer Terry Riley), with whom she recently formed the trio Eviyan. "I've wanted to work with Iva from the first moment I heard her, which was almost 20 years ago," says Ziporyn. "With her background she's very theatrical and has the control of an opera singer, but she's also a very 'in the moment' performer—very adventurous in the way that, say, Bjork or Meredith Monk are. Within 10 minutes of playing together, we all knew it just felt right." Last year, Eviyan performed at Canada's prestigious Festival Musique Actuel and recorded an album, set for release late this year or early 2015.
Bittova's newest offering is Entwine (2014, Pavian). Recorded in the acoustically divine 16th-century Pilgrimage Church of Saint John of Nepomuk at Zelena Hora in the city of Zd'ar nad Sazavou, the album amply displays her scraping bow, spellbinding violin flights, and soaring, chirping, cackling, and recitative vocals on texts by Gertrude Stein. "It's not easy at all to sing and play violin at the same time," says Bittova. "But my father always told me, 'It's not good to just make a copy of somebody else. Try instead to be yourself and see if you can do something a little bit different.' So I'm been happy that I've been able to do that."
Entwine is out now on Pavian Records. Eviyan will perform at the Hudson Opera House on April 5 at 7pm. Tickets are $20 ($18 for members). Hudsonoperahouse.org. Bittova.com.
