Radim Zenkl was born in Opava, Czech Republic. He grew up in the town of Ostrava (about 200 miles east of Prague), where his father teaches classical music at the University of Ostrava. Zenkl began his musical studies with piano and singing, then later on classical guitar. In addition to classical music, his early influences were folk music and Czech unique 'tramp music'. He began playing the mandolin at thirteen.
The discovery of bluegrass music came by listening to records that were smuggled in via those that had escaped from this communist country. The sound of a bluegrass mandolin initiated the spark that launched a decision to play music as a career at the age of seventeen and subsequently led Zenkl beyond bluegrass to an eclectic array of styles. Zenkl's choice of mandolin came as no great joy to his father, who claimed that the instrument had no 'real' repertoire, fueling his desire to create one of his own. He started transcribing music from other instruments and later on began composing.
Between 1984 and 1989, Zenkl played in and led several bluegrass
bands and also performed as a soloist with the State
Opera Orchestra of Ostrava and the Janacek Philharmonic Symphony of Ostrava
on several occasions.
In 1987 Zenkl won the Czechoslovak Mandolin Championship. His
bluegrass (newgrass) band, Tyrkys, won the national band contest 'Porta'
in 1988.
In the spring of 1989 Zenkl recorded his first album, 'Mandolin
Parade', (also the first mandolin album ever made in Czech
Republic), featuring him on ten mandolin family instruments.
In the summer of 1989 Zenkl escaped from Czechoslovakia (four months before the fall of communism) for political freedom and to be closer to his musical influences. Once in America, he settled in the San Francisco Bay Area, California. After only a short period of time, Zenkl was performing at major music festivals and sharing the stage with artists such as Jerry Garcia/David Grisman, Tuck & Patti, Bela Fleck & The Flecktones, David Grisman Quintet, Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Tim O'Brien, Peter Rowan, John McCutcheon, Dan Hicks and many others.
In October 1991 Zenkl played for the newly elected president of Czech Republic, Vaclav Havel, at a reception on the UCLA campus. Playing his own compositions, Zenkl won the prestigious U.S. Mandolin Championship held in Winfield, Kansas in 1992.
Zenkl went on to record two CDs for David Grisman's record label 'Acoustic Disc'. 'Galactic Mandolin' (1992) is comprised of 13 original solo works, each in a different tuning. 'Czech It Out' (1994) features original and Czech and Slovak traditional tunes on solo mandolin, mandocello and mandolin banjo.
In 1996 Zenkl recorded 'Strings & Wings' for Shanachie Records. Included on this CD are improvised duets with 20 different artists such as Jerry Douglas, Bela Fleck, David Grisman, Tony Rice and Rob Wasserman among others, featuring 20 different acoustic string instruments. His next solo CD entitled 'Restless Joy' was released in November 1999, followed by collaborations 'World of Music' (with the all star group 'Festival of Four', 2005), 'Europick' (with keyboard master Leo Chern, 2009) and 'Troubadour Tour' (with Czech folk singer Samson Lenk, 2010).
Presently, Zenkl is a member of the 'Modern Mandolin Quartet' (on mandola) and one of the founding members of the prestigious 'Ger Mandolin Orchestra', lead by Mike Marshall. He also tours with a solo program, which includes original and Eastern European music, flavored with bluegrass, jazz, new age, Irish, flamenco, classical and other. Several mandolin family instruments are used, such as mandola, Irish bouzouki, mando-ukulele, slide mandolin and others. He has invented a masterful technique, the 'Zenkl style,' in which a single mandolin sounds like two. According to David Grisman: "Zenkl has re-invented the mandolin in several different ways."
Zenkl's worldwide performing and teaching credentials include guest appearances at prestigious music institutions such as the Berklee College of Music in Boston and Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, Finland. His instructional DVD 'Mandolin Primer' was released on Homespun in 2015. Bedsides the mandolin, Zenkl plays a variety of ethnic flutes and the didgeridoo. In 2021 he started playing in a duo with Czech guitar and violin master Ondra Kozák. Together they recorded 'Eastern Grass', released on Acoustic Disc in 2023.
Today, Zenkl's virtuosity and innovation have placed him at the forefront of the modern acoustic music scene.