Zlin, South Moravia/Prague, Feb 12 (CTK) – Czech folk singer Jarmila Sulakova, from the Moravian Wallachia area, died after a short disease at the age of 87 on Saturday, Silvia Hrachova, from the Fleret music band with which Sulakova performed in the 1990s and 2000s, told CTK.
Sulakova sang Moravian traditional music from her school years and she helped make several songs very popular in the country during her career in folk music. Until recently, she sang with cymbalo groups. Her mother sang and her father was a musician and had his own band.
She trained to be a dressmaker, but became a sales assistant in a shop selling music records in Zlin and did the job for 35 years.
In the 1950s and 1960, she sang with the Kycera folk band.
In 1952-1993, she sang with the Brno Radio Orchestra of Folk Instruments, travelling all over the world in a distinctive Wallachian folk costume with the orchestra.
Czech Culture Minister Daniel Herman praised Sulakova for her voice, optimism and temperament on the ministry’s Facebook page. He said she was “an eloquent, witty lady, an artist with a broad heart who did so very much for traditional folk culture.”
President Milos Zeman will send a wreath to her funeral to pay respect to Sulakova, his spokesman Jiri Ovcacek said.
