The Four-day Brno Music Marathon Has Ended. It Attracted More Than 30 Thousand Visitors

The Four-day Brno Music Marathon Has Ended. It Attracted More Than 30 Thousand Visitors

In the course of four days the Brno Music Marathon offered some 150 concerts with more than 500 participants. The festival brought together local artists and guests from abroad. The Jazz Evening in the Sono Centre opened with Brno’s Marek Kotača Trio, followed by Yaron Herman from Israel and Kenny Garrett from the USA, while on the stage at Špilberk Castle the local hip-hop legends Chaozz and the crossover and world music Dog Eat Dog got the audience moving. The Adicts from England together with the Prague group The Fialky took care of the rock evening at Fléda, while in the Sono Centre it was the Dutch Physical Graffiti paying tribute to Led Zeppelin. Brno was full of rock, with the British alt-J also performing on Sunday evening.

MH2018_kenny_garrettKenny Garrett Quintet

As part of the Streetless Busking there were appearances from among others ILHAAM from France and the Underground Funk Orchestra from Hungary. There was also the local En.dru, Brno’s Mucha and Petr Váša. Hundreds of kids and their parents enjoyed the range of plays, concerts and workshops at the festival On Boards, Pavement and Grass which also had a special programme in the former penitentiary on Cejl Street, for lovers of classical music the Pianorelay in the Alf Pasáž with Ivo Kahánek, which also commemorated the 90th anniversary of the death of Leoš Janáček, or the Endless Organ in the Jesuit Church led by Professor Alena Veselá. In cooperation with the Brno Days there was a gala concert in the Cathedral of Saint Peter and Paul, with a performance of the Mass in D major by Antonín Dvořák by the Ensemble Inégal. Musical connoisseurs will certainly have enjoyed the work Testimonianze – Svědectví by Jan Kapr, the premiere of which took place thanks to unique cooperation with the UPROSTŘED festival.

MH2018_ivo_kahanekIvo Kahánek

The festival in Brno also welcomed one of the main stars of Letní Letná ahead of Prague presented New Circus in the form of the French artists Cirque Inextremiste, who in the air-conditioned tent overwhelmed viewers with their acrobatic show with an earth mover. This year the buskers included organ grinders who took over Brno’s streets with their magic boxes. They met here as part of the 9th International Meeting of Organ Grinders, which finished with a joint concert in the Red Church. The courtyard of the Old Town Hall played host to folk music. Ensembles gathered on the stage of the South Moravian Region where they sang and danced until midnight on Saturday. Among those appearing were the Male Voice Choir from Kyjov as well as HM Petra Mičky, ĽH Poľana and guests…

MH2018_cirque_inextremisteCirque Inextremiste

Last year Brno was successful in becoming part of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network and so can proudly post of the title “city of music”.Brno Music Marathon is one of the major musical events in Brno and offers dozens of concerts and happenings, which fill the Moravian metropolis and allow visitors to enjoy music in many forms. Multi-genre performances and non-traditional concert venues are definitely ideal for summertime Brno. This year’s event exceeded the expectations of the organisers, who had hoped for 20 visitors. A large part of the musical menu was without the barrier of a fee, so all that was needed was to choose and go. Some listeners were attracted by the special atmosphere of the city’s streets, others by the names of stars giving concerts and so all that is left is to hope that the fourth Brno Music Marathon will be at least as successful.

MH2018_sbor_z_kyjova

Comments

Reply

No comment added yet..

The concert with subtitle “Comradeship, Cooperation, Subversion and a Big Battle at the End”, directed by the Brno Contemporary Orchestra (BCO), offered a remarkable programme of contemporary music. It consisted of three Czech and one world premiere, performed at the Besední dům on 27 February under the baton of the tribal conductor Pavel Šnajdr. The choice of the concert hall was anything but random. The Besední dům is celebrating 150 years since its opening this year, and the ensemble held an annual community concert to mark the important anniversary.  more

Last year’s album Morytáty a romance by Brno singer-songwriter and TV dramaturge Ivo Cicvárek scores points in annual polls beyond the pure folk genre. Ivo recorded his big project with his renamed band, which he now calls Živo, and a number of guests. In the interview he explains what is behind the songs of the album and talks about his future plans.  more

Naloučany is a small village on the Oslava River in the Vysočina region. The village has its own photographer, and his portraits of the village locals have found their way to the American Library of Congress and have become part of the largest collection of this medium since its beginnings. This is naturally a source of pride for nearly two hundred of the village’s inhabitants. That’s why they all joined forces to give their native photographer an event that would be remembered not only by them and by the photographer himself, but also by all the other visitors who took the trip through the snowy rolling landscape to the village’s community centre.  more

Folklore enthusiasts from all over Moravia met in the reconstructed hall of the largest Czech Sokol Hall on Kounicova Street in Brno. The traditional seventy-first ball was organised by the Slovácký krúžek Brno Club on Saturday 21 January. Two associations with a deep First Republic tradition were thus connected, and it seemed that they had shared a natural common bond all that time.  more

Drama, philosophy, and an interestingly outlined psychology of works was offered up by the most recent big concert of the Brno Philharmonic at the Janáček Theatre. The listener-friendly programme, aptly titled Ancient Nordic Tales, was staged and performed with the orchestra by Danish conductor Michael Schønwandt (*1953), currently chief conductor of the Orchestra of the National Opera Montpellier. His fondness for promoting contemporary composers is reflected in the dramaturgy itself. In addition to well-known works by Edvard Grieg and Jean Sibelius, the audience had the opportunity to get acquainted with Danish composer Hans Abrahamsen (*1952). American soprano Nicole Chevalier also introduced her works to the audience.  more

Martin Kyšperský and Aleš Pilgr recently celebrated twenty years of cooperation in the Květy (Flowers) group. While the bandmates and instruments around them have changed over the two decades, the two have remained a constant force in one of Brno's most essential bands of the century. This constant force, however, has been a dynamic one, as the two protagonists alternate between different instruments and approaches. Martin switches from the guitar to other instruments, and Aleš has gone from being a drummer to a double bassist and will be a drummer again from 2023. This context is then also important for understanding the new album Duo, which Kyšperský and Pilgr recorded as, well, a duo.  more

The latest addition to the concert series organized by the Brno-based Ensemble Opera Diversa is a chamber recital by violinist Milan Paľa and pianist Katarína Paľová entitled “Repentance”. The program, which took place on Sunday 30 October at Villa Stiassni, presented works by composers Valentin Bibik and the recently deceased Roman Berger, whose Adagio No. 2 "Repentance" (Pokánie) inspired the title of the evening.  more

Lidověk is the first solo album by Matěj Metoděj Štrunc, a young actor, singer and musician originally from Brno, frontman of the band Ateliér, and son of dulcimer player Dalibor and violinist Katerina Štrunc from the bands Cimbal Classic and Javory. The apple really did not fall far from the tree, but at the same time it came closer to other trees and colored itself with original colors.  more

The Brazilian singer-songwriter with (not only) Japanese roots Luiz Murá first appeared in Moravia five years ago, when he performed at the Folk Holidays in Náměšt' with his then international band Miramundo. This summer he came to Brno. Not as a musician, but as an organizer of club concerts in Barcelona, where he has been living for the last few years. As an official foreign delegate he participated in the two-day Central European Jazz Showcase at the Husa na provázku theatre. During his stay in Brno, we asked the likeable world traveler, who is still first and foremost a musician, a few questions. Not least because Luiz's previous stay in Moravia was reflected in his latest solo album.  more

The Latvian instrumental band Very Cool People recently released an album with the long title 50 Years of Influence + 30 Years of Cool Equals 13 Years of Music Hooliganism. In a few days they will come to Brno to present it – they’ll play on 17th September in Music Lab club. And besides the songs from the aforementioned album, you’ll also get to hear the complete new songs from the yet-to-be-released projects. The band, led by guitarist Elvijs Grafcovs, who answers our questions, has plenty of them.  more

“We did it as a session, sitting opposite each other, so that the viewer would have the experience of coming to a rehearsal,” says singer Dan Bárta, describing how his current album, In One Breath (Jedním dechem), was recorded together with the jazz Robert Balzar Trio and Hungarian trumpeter Kornél Fekete-Kovács. The jazziest album in Dan Bárta’s rich discography was released on the Brno label Bivak Records and was recorded in the Brno studio of Czech Television.  more

After a covid break, the streets of Brno were once again filled with costumes from various parts of Moravia as well as other European countries. On the first day of September, the International Folklore Festival Brno began. Like the vast majority of festivals and regular events that could not take place in the last two years, the IFF also had a break due to government measures. And that is why this year’s festival chose the telling subtitle “We Live”. This time BROLN provided the opening concert in the courtyard of the New Town Hall, and there were two special reasons for this.  more

At the penultimate concert of its tenth year jubilee staged in the Fresco Room of the Comenium Elementary School, the Olomouc Baroque Festival presented an evening with the Musica Florea ensemble. The musicians, conducted by cellist Marek Štryncl, performed a selection of compositions by forgotten classical and early romantic composers Karl Kohaut, Jan Ladislav Dusík and Johann Nepomuk Hummel. The choice of composers was not random – this year it is 210 years since Dusík’s death and 185 years since Hummel’s death. Performing with the ensemble’s core members – violinist Magdalena Malá and Simona Tydlitátová, violist Lýdie Cillerová, cellist Marek Štryncl and bass player Ondřej Štajnochra – was Petra Matějová on the fortepiano.  more

The album Zavrzlama by Bosnian band Divanhana is so far in continuous sequence, the second best world recording of 2022 according to the panel of radio publicists of World Music Charts Europe. Divanhana will perform as part of the Lednice-Valtice Music Festival on 26 August in Hlohovec and a day later in Břeclav – Charvátská Nová Ves. The band’s pianist, Neven Tunjíč, is here to answer our questions.  more

On 18 and 19 August, the tenth anniversary edition of the Olomouc Baroque Music Festival included a unique dramaturgical treat in its program – one of the most historically important Czech operas which, however, does not appear much on the stages of opera houses or music halls. This is Dráteník (The Tinker), the first original Czech opera composed by František Škroup to a libretto by Josef Krasoslav Chmelenský. It was directed by Kateřina Křivánková, with costumes and set by Sylva Marková and music by Marek Čermák, and performed by the Volantes Orchestra, the festival’s resident ensemble. Singing roles were taken up by Matúš Šimko (Dráteník/Škroup), Lenka Cafourková Ďuricová (Růžena), Vincenc Ignác Novotný (Vojtěch), Zuzana Badárová (Liduška), Aleš Janiga (Květenský), Jiří Miroslav Procházka (Lána), and Martin Vodrážka (Kůl). The purely dramatic roles of Chmelenský – the aforementioned author of the libretto – and Hranatý the guard were played by Martin Mihál. The reviewer visited the premiere performance.  more

Editorial

In the new single Magnum, the big band B-Side Band tackles the hectic pace of everyday life. The clip also features actors Michal Isteník and Jakub Uličník alongside the musicians. The as yet untitled album will be released in autumn this year. The band will start touring in early 2024.  more

Dialogues (Dialogy) is a mini-festival of the Brno Philharmonic; it will take place at the Besední dům and the Janáček Theatre. Tomorrow, Yumi Hwang-Williams will present William Bolcom’s Violin Concerto in D major under the baton of Dennis Russell Davies, and a concert entitled From America to the Czech Republic will take place on Thursday and Friday. Next week, Milan Paľa will appear as soloist in Alfred Schnittke’s Fourth Violin Concerto.  more

Singer Bára Basiková celebrated her 60th anniversary a few days ago. The director and choreographer Martin Dvořák from the ProART group is preparing a multi-genre stage adaptation of her 1980s novel called Conversations with Escapemore

The British group The Subways are back on club stages. As part of their European tour for their latest album “Uncertain Joys”, the band will also visit the Brno club Fléda.  more

The Brno City Theatre (MdB) is holding an audition to complete the ensemble (offer of engagement) and to perform the main roles and company of the musical The Addams Family.  more

The international audiovisual project Fusion by singer and composer Zuzana Mikulcová continues. The multi-genre musical fusion with Dan Bárta, Barbara Mochová, Lara Abou Hamdan, Petr Lipa, Jakub König, and Beata Hlavenková will be complemented this year by a seventh single and video called “Blind Tomorrow”, linking the Slovak and Irish scenes with an emotive duet between Mikulcová and Irish musician Graeme Mark “Grank” Donaldson. The clip was created in the Brno club Music Lab, where Mikulcová has also performed several times.  more

After a long time, the Brno Contemporary Orchestra returns to the Besední dům to celebrate its 150th birthday. For their 11th season, they have put together a special concert programme especially for the Besední dům. The upcoming concert, led by conductor Pavel Šnajdr, will feature three Czech and one world premiere.  more

The annual meeting of UNESCO Cities of Music is currently taking place in Norrköping, Sweden. The host city is the cultural capital of the Östergötland region, 130 kilometres south of Stockholm. Like Brno, Norrköping has been a UNESCO Creative Cities Network City of Music since 2017.  more

For the fourteenth year now, the space under the Cathedral of St. Peter and Paul comes alive with productions from the Brno Municipal Theatre (MdB). This year, the MdB will start its summer performances at the beginning of June and will stage a total of 29 performances of seven different titles in the Bishop’s Court. The traditional summer stage will open with the world premiere of the original production Crocodile from Svratka or Mozart in Brno by Stanislav Slovák, Jan Šotkovský, and Petr Štěpán.  more

The Brno cultural newsletter brings you an overview of events and opportunities in the coming period concerning theatres, clubs, festivals, and cultural events in Brno.  more