News
Life Without the Internet in the Divadlo na Orlí: The Original Musical Offline!
The story of the musical comes from the book Without the Internet. My Half Year Offline by German journalist and editor of Süddeutsche Zeitung, Alex Rühle. Offline! tells of the experiences of a person who gave up the internet willingly for half a year. The musical was studied by the graduating year of musical students of the Theatre Faculty of the Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts, and the production is the original idea of dramaturge Martin Sládeček and composer Mario Buzzi, directed by Lukáš Kopecký. more
Romeo and Juliet to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the world premiere in Brno
Prokofiev's ballet drama Romeo and Juliet had its world première at the National Theatre Brno on 30 December 1938 (at the today’s Mahen Theatre, at that time called Na hradbách Theatre) with choreography by Ivo Váňa Psota. The current performance will be its seventh premiere production since 1938. The National Theatre Brno ballet ensemble will present a production directed by Martin Glaser with choreography by Mário Radačovský. Musical production has been undertaken by Pavel Šnajdr. more
The JazzFestBrno International Jazz Festival, which lasts from March to May this year, extends its current program of electro-jazz evening called Tension at the Praha Club in Brno, workshops for children JazzFestBrno for Children at Café Práh and concerts in Kyjov, Tišnov and Miroslav. more
Encounter of Richard Novák and Johannes Brahms
Brno bass singer Richard Novák will be accompanied during his recital by Kostiantyn Tyshko and Vladimír Krátký. Audience will be treated to Die schöne Magelone by Johannes Brahms. more
Folklore and Feelings: Cimbalom band Kubíci from Horňácko district
The 7th part of the Folklore and Feelings [in Czech: Folklor a city] project will take place again in the Café Era in Brno. As a guest of the evening will appear the cimbalom band Kubíci from Horňácko district. more
Musical Stocktaking 2019: Zámečník, Emmert, Novák and Hartmann
Ensemble Opera Diversa introduces the Music Inventory, which has been traditionally dedicated to less renowned works, not only by Czech composers. This time, it also commemorates the anniversaries of the years 1939 and 1969. The programme features works by František Emmert, Evžen Zámečník, K. A. Hartmann and Jan Novák. The soloists of the evening are violinist Milan Paľa and pianists Kristýna Znamenáčková and Lucie Pokorná, the conductor is Gabriela Tardonová. more
The 10th Year of Beatfest as a Memorial to Oldřich Veselý
The Brno rock musician Oldřich Veselý died in the January of last year. This year’s tenth Beatfest has the subtitle Memories of Olda Veselý. There will be appearances from Roman Dragoun & His Angels, Miloš Makovský & Neopak, Lešek Semelka & SLS, Synkopy 61, Folk Team and others. more
A Brno Swan Lake in a Renewed Premiere
The ballet company of the National Theatre in Brno is performing Swan Lake in a renewed premiere to mark the centenary of the first performance in the National Theatre in Brno. The production is the work of choreographer and director Robert Strajner. After twenty years the Brno Swan Lake is returning to the repertoire in an entirely new artistic conception. Roman Šolc is taking care of the costumes, the stage sets were designed by the British artist Peter Horne, who already did the same for the ballet The Nutcracker Louskáček. The orchestra is being conducted by Robert Kružík. more
The band The Shookies has recently had concerts with the Irish formation Interference and Glen Hansard and has also released a new single, Lonely & Weak. In March, they are planning to christen a second album, Sooner or Later, which is being created in cooperation with producer Tomáš Neuwerth in the Animan studio in Kopřivnice. The Brno christening of the album will take place in the Melodka club. more
A joint performance by three flamenco dancers from different corners of the world will take place in Brno’s Buranteatr theatre. Lucía Ruibal, La Libu and La Rubia will perform together with the singer Juan Cárdenas and the flamenco guitarist Morenito de Trian. more
The now world-famous Swedish band Dirty Loops finished their autumn European tour on Saturday, 30 November at Brno's Metro Music Bar. The band featured on the programme of the seventeenth annual Groove Brno funk, soul and jazz festival. The virtuoso trio, consisting of Jonah Nilsson - vocals and keyboards, Henrik Linder - bass guitar and Aron Mellergård - drums, are famous for their flawless technical proficiency, sophisticated original compositions and cover versions of well-known numbers, especially pop songs. However, these songs are often reharmonised in their arrangements and the style is more a combination of disco, pop and jazz fusion. To avoid having to resort to using pre-recorded backing tracks, the trio was joined on tour by keyboardist and vocalist Kristian Kraftling. more
Ensemble Opera Diversa put a distinctive "spin" on its last orchestral concert of the year. It took place on 26 November at the Alterna music club, which is more a rock, electronica and indie pop hangout than an artistic music venue. The pair of selected pieces consisting of Vojtěch Dlask's premièred work Querell Songs for soprano saxophone and strings and Miloslav Ištvan's Hard Blues for pop-baritone, soprano, reciter and chamber ensemble also reflected this. Naturally, it was Ištvan's Hard Blues that gave the evening its name - the clash of the artistic, composed and purposefully "artistic" world (not meant pejoratively) with authentic African-American musical expressions springing from the depths of the soul of a man tested by life formed as the centre of the evening. This was not merely a stylistic inspiration, but more thematic, which was also evident in the opening piece of the evening. This was the composition Querelle Songs, inspired by Jean Genet's novel, previously dedicated to Ensemble Opera Diversa, but this time in a new instrumentation. more
Leoš Janáček's (1854-1928) Moravian national opera Jenůfa was brought to Brno for the Janáček Brno 2024 festival by the Moravian Theatre Olomouc in a co-production with the Janáček Opera NdB. Rather than using the Czech title Její pastorkyňa, the production team, headed by director Veronika Kos Loulová, decided to stage the work as Jenůfa, the name under which it is performed abroad. On Wednesday, 20 November, five days after its première in Olomouc, the audience at the Mahen Theatre could also see the latest domestic take on Janáček's most widely performed opera. The musical staging of the significantly modified original version from 1904 was the work of conductor Anna Novotná Pešková, and the main roles were played by Barbora Perná (Jenůfa), Eliška Gattringerová (Kostelnička), Josef Moravec (Laca Klemeň) and Roman Hasymau (Števa Buryja). more
The office of Brno - UNESCO City of Music, with the financial support of the South Moravian Region, presents a line-up of active folklore groups (ensembles, chasers, musics) in the Brno region as part of the Year of Folklore Ensembles. more
Trumpeter Jiří Kotača founded the big band Cotatcha Orchestra ten years ago. Nowadays, he performs a variety of programmes ranging from the most traditional jazz to a visionary fusion of jazz and electronica. We chatted with Jiří Kotača about how the orchestra has gradually developed, how the original repertoire is blurring the boundaries between jazz and electronica, and also about what fans can expect from the November concert to celebrate the orchestra's 10th anniversary. We also talk about Kotača's International Quartet, as well as how the trumpet and flugelhorn can be enriched with effects. more