Received his first lessons in double-bass playing at the Conservatorium of Žilina. From 1997 to 2002 he studied at music academies in Munich, Trossingen and Nürnberg, from 2002 to 2005 in the artistic further education class of the Nürnberg music academy and finally at a master class there in 2005/06. He has played in numerous youth orchestras, including the Young Munich Philharmonic and the Young Austrian Philharmonic, and has won prizes: in 1997 he was winner of the second prize at the national double-bass competition in Bratislava, in 1997 and 2000 he was successful at the International Czech Double-Bass Competition, and in 2007 he was awarded the scholarship of the Christian Nielsen and Kai Køge Pedersen Foundation. A first firm contract took him in 2006 to the Royal Orchestra and Opera of Copenhagen, where he was promoted to deputy solo double-bass in 1997. Since October 2008 Vlado Zatko has been first solo double-bass of the Düsseldorf Symphonic. Apart from this he has often guested with other orchestras, including the Chamber Orchestra of Munich, the Munich Symphonic, the DR (Danish Radio) Sinfonietta, Sjælands Symfoniorkester, Malmö Symfoniorkester, the Orchestra of the Tyrolean Festival of Erl, the double-bass sextet Bassiona Amorosa and the Solisten-Oktett of Berlin.