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The famous Czech pianist and harpsichordist, Viktorie Švihlíková, studied first with her father, who had founded the Music Conservatory in Charkow (Ukraine). Then the family moved to Prague. Here she received a music scholarship in Paris from the president of Czechoslovakia T.G. Masaryk. In Paris she was a pupil of Isidor Philippe. Afterwards she continued her studies in Prague with professor Vilém Kurz and in Berlin with Carl Adolf Martienssen (piano). She also studied composition with the famous Czech composer Vítězslav Novák, chamber music with Václav Talich and the pre-classical music with flutist, conductor and musicologist Milan Munclinger.
Viktorie Švihlíková and Milan Munclinger got married, and in 1951 they founded the ensemble Ars Rediviva (Milan Munclinger flute, Viktorie Švihlíková harpsichord, Stanislav Duchoň oboe, František Sláma cello). The ensemble's size expanded later to a chamber orchestra This Czech ensemble, deeply interested in performance of early music, played the key role in the revival of Baroque music in its country. It was the first ensemble in Czechoslovakia to record many works of J.S. Bach (LP's of the complete Brandenburg Concertos, Art of Fugue (BWV 1080), Musical Offering (BWV 1079), trio sonatas, flute sonatas, cantatas, concertos reconstructions), and his sons (Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach: sonatas, sinfonies, concerts, Wilhelm Friedemann Bach: sinfonies, sonatas, J.Ch. Bach: chamber music, sinfonies, etc.), Antonio Vivaldi (concertos, sonatas, Stabat Mater), Rameau (Pièces en Concerts, etc.), François Couperin (trio sonatas, Apothéose de Corelli, A. de Lulli, etc.), Georg Philipp Telemann (concertos, Pariser Quattuors, Musique de Table, Essercizii musici, Moralische Kantaten …), Jan Dismas Zelenka (sonatas, orchestral works, Lamentationes Jeremiae Prophetae), F. Benda (sonatas, flute concertos), J.A. Benda (Ariadna auf Naxos, Bendas Klage, sonatas, concertos for harpsichord and orchestra) as well as unknown compositions discovered in archives.
Viktorie Švihlíková's performances were an important impulse in reviving the popularity of harpsichord in her country and in the return of the harpsichord to the modern Czech music. A number of works were written for her (e.g. the Czech composer Ilja Hurník dedicated many compositions to Viktorie Švihlíková). She released most of her recordings as soloist of Ars Rediviva (labels: e.g. Supraphon, CBS, DGG, Columbia/Nippon, Ariola) and was many time awarded for her performance of early music (Grand Prix du Disque de l´Académie Charles Cross). She collaborated with B. Hubermann, J.P. Rampal and other famous musicians.
Since the 1960's Viktorie Švihlíková taught at the Malmö Academy of Music (Musikhögskolan i Malmö), later in Vienna and has given master-classes in other European music centres (particularly of her new method of piano playing). In 1991 she established the Prague Junior Note, a competition for young musicians.
In 2001 Viktorie Švihlíková received from the Czech Minister for Foreign Affairs the honour award Gratias
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