Václav Kalivoda is a Czech trombone player, musician, composer, and performer. After studying trombone at the Prague Conservatory and Bard College Conservatory of Music (USA), where he received degrees both in music and classical studies, he went to study traditional gamelan music at ISI Yogyakarta (IDN).

Václav works with theatre, dance, and theatre companies (Archa+, Divadlo Ponec, Studio Alta, Crew collective, tYhle, Z druhé strany, NIE theatre, Wariot Ideal, Czech National Theatre and others) with whom he performs, composes, and develops music for the performances. He composed music for performances souHra, Now We Are Here, Icarus, Košilice, Mikrosvěty, Jeden a Jeden a Jeden, Crooners, Pošli pohled odněkud, kam nepojedeš, and others. In the theater and dance projects, he doesn’t stay as a passive musician, but actively steps into the performances, making the music not only a decoration, but rather an equal partner to the words, movements, lights and other theater attributes. He participates in some educational programs connected with music, theater, and dance, both as a musician and an instructor.

Although Václav is trained as a classical musician he goes way beyond classical music to other styles and genres including free improvisation, music for the theater, and Javanese gamelan. He has been cooperating with many musicians and music groups such as: Tomislav Federsel/B4, Prague Improvisation Orchestra, Orchestr Berg, PMP Orchestra, EnsembleSpectrum, Contemporaeus, Voříšci, Moving Orchestra, Petr Vrba, Zdeněk Závodný, Iva Bittová, Čikori, Secret Aerobic, Drozdi a Droždí, Anna Romanovská, Petr Tichý, Pasi Mäkelä, Jiří Konvrzek, Helder Deploige, Michal Hrubý, Vložte Kočku, Anna Pančenko.

Václav has been part of many site-specific projects and public interventions with projects like Moving Orchestra, 4+4 Dny v Pohybu, Meziprostory, Zažij mesto jinak, Živé mesto, and Funebráci. He has a wife and a son and lives in Prague.