News
The Moravian Philharmonic Olomouc will open its 75th season with a world premiere today
The Moravian Philharmonic Olomouc is now entering its 75th concert season, which will begin with music by the Czech composers Antonín Dvořák, Bohuslav Martinů, Iša Krejčí and Marek Keprt. The last of them wrote a composition directly for the Moravian Philharmonic. The orchestra will play it tonight under the baton of the chief conductor Jakub Klecker, with the pianist Ivo Kahánek appearing as a soloist. The concert will be broadcast live by Czech Radio on its Vltava station. more
The situation in the Czech club scene has been alarming for a long time now. Music clubs, which were the first to close in the first wave of the coronavirus crisis, are now facing serious existential problems. Without state aid to the cultural sector, there is a threat of absolute bankruptcy in the coming weeks. more
Ensemble Opera Diversa: Kyas, Bernáth, MacMillan and Pärt
The church concert of the Ensemble Opera Diversa was originally supposed to present Ondřej Kyas' oratorio Stabat Mater; due to the current situation, however, the production of this work will be replaced by a purely instrumental performance of other compositions. The new programme will feature MacMillan's Seraph, a concerto for trumpet and strings with Vít Otáhal as the soloist, and Arvo Pärt's Festina lente with Dominika Kvardová playing the harp. The concert will be complemented by instrumental works by Ondřej Kyas and Ľuboš Bernáth with the Czech premiere of a rarely performed piece - Summa by Arvo Pärt. The concert will be conducted by Gabriela Tardonová. more
The Janáček Theatre building has been serving art for 55 years now
The Janáček Theatre, which is part of the National Theatre Brno and hosts the Brno opera and ballet ensembles, is celebrating 55 years of its existence. The operation of this theatre began on 2 October 1965 with a performance of The Cunning Little Vixen by Leoš Janáček. more
Latest: Barbara Maria Willi will be the new dean of the JAMU Faculty of Music
The Faculty of Music of the Janáček Academy of Performing Arts will be led for the next four years by Professor Barbara Maria Willi, Ph.D. At its meeting yesterday, the academic senate of the faculty decided on it in a secret vote. Professor Willi applied for this management position at the JAMU Faculty of Music with Associate Professor MgA. Vít Spilka. more
The Janáček Brno Festival has successfully fought its way through difficult conditions this year
This year's Janáček Brno festival of opera and music had to adapt to a complicated situation in the context of the pandemic. Despite that, the festival was a great success. The organisers managed to do as much as they could to keep its programme, which touched on the artistic turmoil at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries and the search for new approaches in the musical expression of operatic and instrumental works. more
The Nouvelle Prague music conference will be held online this year and free of charge
The eighth annual session of the Nouvelle Prague music conference and show will take place online this year. You will be able to watch lectures, workshops and mentoring meetings with representatives of festivals, clubs, publishing houses and music media safely from home. more
Alena Veselá obtained a state award
Organist, music teacher, rector emeritus of JAMU and founder of the Brno Organ Festival – Prof. Alena Veselá received a state award from the President of the Czech Republic for her merits in the field of art. more
Bonjour Brno: You can watch Ira Mimosa's concert online today
Tonight you can watch a festival online concert full of French songs performed by the singer-songwriter and guitarist Ira Mimosa. more
The Brno-based big band Cotatcha Orchestra has now released its second single called Billy's Pilgrimage, with Lenka Dusilová appearing as a guest singer. The single is part of the upcoming album Bigbandová elektronika / Bigband Electronics, which will be released on the American label Parma Recordings as soon as tomorrow. more
This year's first concert by the Brno Contemporary Orchestra from the Auscultation series was entitled Gastro (Cuisine), or Dinner for Magdalena Dobromila Rettig (1785-1845). On Sunday, 2 February, the orchestra performed two compositions, or rather performances and happenings by Ondřej Adámek (*1979), who also conducted the pieces, in the dining room of the Masaryk Student House. This was a fairly unusual situation for the audience, when conductor Pavel Šnajdr did not take his place at the head of the orchestra. more
The fourth concert in the Brno Philharmonic's Philharmonic at Home subscription series, subtitled Metamorphoses and conducted by Dennis Russell Davies, was dedicated to works by Joseph Haydn, Antonín Rejcha and Richard Strauss. Pianist Ivan Ilić was originally scheduled to appear as soloist in Rejcha's Piano Concerto, but for health reasons he cancelled the concert. Jan Bartoš promptly took over, enabling the audience to hear the original programme on Thursday 30 January at the Besední dům. more
The Brno Philharmonic's New Year's concert on 1 January at the Janáček Theatre is already a well-established tradition. This year was no exception, and the orchestra, led by conductor Michel Tabachnik, gave a performance consisting mainly of works by Johann Strauss the Younger. This was the Brno Philharmonic Orchestra's show opening the 'Strauss Year'. After all, 2025 is the 200th anniversary of the birth of the composer, dubbed the king of waltzes. Strauss's compositions were accompanied by works by Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Richard Strauss and Dimitri Shostakovich. more
"Culture is a Bridge" was the theme of the second Czech-Austrian Partnership Concert, held on Friday, 20 December at Schloss Thalheim. It was the final evening of the 5th year of the pan-European project Czech Dreams 2024, and also part of the celebrations of the Year of Czech Music and the Concentus Moraviae international music festival. Culture is a bridge that connects not only different generations and social classes, but also entire nations. And the Czech Dreams project, which in 2024 alone presented music by Czech composers in 25 European cities in 17 different countries, is an eloquent example of this. In December alone, besides the final concert in Austria, six more concerts were performed in southern Europe, from Amarante in Portugal to Varaždin in Croatia. The concert was dedicated to the Lower Austrian Governor Erwin Pröll, who has long been committed to building and deepening relations between the Czech Republic and Austria. more
Christmas in Brno also means the traditional pre-Christmas concert of the Brno Contemporary Orchestra (BCO), this time entitled From America to Tuřany. It took place on 18th December and after a one-year break it returned to the Sokol Hall in Tuřany. The BCO, conducted by Pavel Šnajdr, performed works by Mauricio Kagel, Steve Reich, Trevor Grahl and, as always, Miloslav Kabeláč. Appearing together with the orchestra were four singers, Aneta Podracká Bendová, Kornél Mikecz, Michal Kuča and Martin Kotulan. At the end of the first half, Pavel Šnajdr set aside his baton and clapped the beat, joined by Petr Hladík. more
