News
National Theatre Brno announces a new season of events: The Magic Flute, Otello, and Cinderella
The theatre (NTB) has released details of the 2021/2022 season, which includes premieres of five operas and three ballets. Janáček Opera has dubbed the upcoming season “Follow the voice of the heart…”, and in keeping with this, Peter Grimes by Benjamin Britten is scheduled, directed by David Radok. The long-awaited, The Greek Passion by Bohuslav Martinů under the direction of Jiří Heřman, and Mozart’s The Magic Flute directed by Miroslav Krobot are included, too. NTB’s ballet celebrates the 250th anniversary of Ludwig van Beethoven’s birth by presenting a piece entitled Beethoven with Mário Radačovský as the choreographer. After more than thirty years, Cinderella, a ballet by Sergei Prokofiev, returns to the stage of the Janáček Theatre as a brand-new production choreographed by Markéta Pimek Habalová. The new season reflects the sentiment of the heading “Honouring the Greats”. more
SoundCzech is to host a conference in Brno in September, the main impetus being to restart the musical scene after the pandemic. The event is intended for representatives of clubs, managers, artists and other professionals from the Czech Republic and abroad. more
Zdenek Merta – a composer, producer, pianist and singer – has a new CD out on the occasion of his 70th birthday entitled Zdenek Merta u klavíru (Zdenek Merta at the Piano), which reviews his career to date. Guest artists on the recordings include musician Ondřej Pivec, the concert master of the Czech Philharmonic Jiří Vodička, oboist Vilém Veverka and singer & actor Vojtěch Dyk. more
JazzFestBrno, an international jazz festival, has announced the name of its first guest for next year. British artist Jacob Collier, a social-media sensation who has risen to prominence videos made in his from his bedroom, is to come to Brno. The festival shall be the only event at which the 26-year-old multi-instrumentalist and singer is to perform in the Czech Republic. more
News: Petr Císař, a former member of the Janáček Opera, has died. He was 43 years old
The National Theatre Brno has announced today the death of Petr Císař, a former soloist and singer in the choir. more
Summer with the Opera of the National Theatre Brno
This summer, the ensemble of the Janáček Opera at the National Theatre Brno is again putting on traditional open-air performances in the courtyard of Špilberk Castle. For the first time their summertime schedule shall include performances at the open-air stage of the Amphitheatre in Mikulov. Well-known works are planned, such as Rossini’s The Barber of Seville, Bizet’s Carmen, Verdi’s La traviata and a new production of Puccini’s La bohème. more
The concert for today by the Brno Philharmonic entitled Novák 100 comprises three works by authors linked to Brno – Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Jan Novák and Leoš Janáček. With Dennis Russell Davies, Chief Conductor, conducting, the programme shall be broadcast on the Czech Radio Vltava. more
News: Acoustic model of the hall of the Janáček Cultural Centre arrives in Brno
A miniature, but a faithful copy of the Janáček Cultural Centre at the scale of 1: 10 shall serve for testing the audio parameters of the project. The model arrived at the Brno Exhibition Centre today, where a team led by Yasuhisa Toyota, a world-renowned acoustician, will carry out acoustic measurements and check calculations that have been made. more
Brno Music Marathon Festival is happening in the middle of this August
As the designated UNESCO City of Music, Brno is all set to be filled with harmonious sounds of music once again. Hundreds of musicians will perform in the city over the four days of the festival, with dozens of concerts scheduled that shall make the squares, streets and concert halls resound with music. Encompassing a variety of genres, this year’s Brno Music Marathon will take place in mid-August, just like before, and it’s going to be one of the few public events to happen this year. The line-up includes Lenka Dusilová, Juwana Jenkins, Sisa Feher, Fanfara Transilvania, Malalata, Circus Brothers, Horňácká cimbálová muzika Petra Mičky (the Horňácko Cimbalom Band of Petr Mička), Javory and a host of others. Street “rooms” by Kateřina Šedá is not absent from it, either. more
On Saturday, 24 August, the Korean radio orchestra KBS Symphony Orchestra with its musical director - Finnish conductor and violinist Pietari Inkinen - came to Brno's Špilberk Festival with an exclusively romantic repertoire. The invitation was also accepted by South Korean violinist Bomsori Kim, a graduate of the prestigious Julliard School. more
For a quarter of a century now, the Brno Philharmonic has been organising the Špilberk Festival at the end of August in the courtyard of the castle of the same name. Four open-air musical evenings offer the audience a selection of concerts featuring classical, film and computer music, as well as often jazz and other genres. This makes it a diverse mix of performers and repertoires with an often pleasant, summery, laid-back ambience. This year's big and rapdily sold-out attraction was the Wednesday evening of 21 August, full of melodies from the James Bond films, performed by the Czech National Symphony Orchestra, headed by world-renowned conductor, composer and arranger Steven Mercurio. During the concert, the audience also got to enjoy singers Sara Milfajtová, Vendula Příhodová and David Kraus. more
As part of its European tour, the Taiwanese Taipei Philharmonic Chamber Choir (TPCC), under the direction of artistic director and choirmaster Dr. YuChung Johnny Ku, took the city up on its invitation and visited Brno. The concert was held on Monday, 13th August in the hall of the newly renovated Passage Hotel. more
The final concert of this year's season of the Brno Philharmonic was devoted to works by Antonín Dvořák and Jean Sibelius at the Janáček Theatre. On Thursday, 20 June, Danish conductor Michael Schønwandt, who had not appeared before a Brno audience since January last year, took the lead of the Philharmonic. In the first half of the programme, the orchestra was accompanied by violinist Alexander Sitkovetsky. more
In the spirit of the idea that Brno and folklore belong together, the Folklore Ensemble Happening of the Year took place on Thursday 6 June. The event was organised by the Brno UNESCO City of Music Office in cooperation with the Brno Dances and Sings association. The event thus became part of a long-term project that set out to map the amateur music scene in Brno, and not only folk music. Last year Brno City of Music reached out to choirs in a similar way, and in the future will host garage bands and more. This just goes to prove the diversity of Brno's music scene, not only as regards professional ensembles, but also enthusiastic amateurs for whom music is an inseparable part of their lives. more
