Fotograf Magazine

Interview with Mário Bihári, blind musician engaged in working with photography, about his collaboration with the documentary photographer Björn Steinz on common projects

Mário, how did your musical journey to Prague occur?

I was born in Malacky, in Slovakia. I became blind when I was eight, and was enrolled in a grammar school for blind students in Levoča. Are you asking how I came to choose my instruments? I think originally I did not even want to play the accordion, but there was no other way apart from that instrument if I wanted to get into the Prague conservatory… As for the piano, I kind of slacked on it back then, like most kids. I just barely got into the Jan Deyl conservatory in Prague. The accordion was my main subject, second was the clarinet, plus the obligatory piano. It was only then that I started to really immerse myself in music. As for percussion, I am entirely self-taught in that field.