Interviews
This year’s eighteenth JazzFest Brno will exceptionally not close with a concert, but rather a unique (though not unusual for world festivals) series of musical and dance workshops, centred on children. On Saturday 4 May, in the pleasant environment of Café Práh, near Vaňkovka, the children students will be taken on board by the significant young personalities of the jazz scene: Beata Hlavenková (pianist and composition lecturer), Dano Šoltis (leader of the drum class) and the multi-instrumentalists Jiří Slavík and Marian Friedl (conductors of Wandering on Jazz Paths), who will be accompanied by Kateřina Hanzlíková with the Tancohraní lectures. With the exception of composition, where it is necessary for the participants to be older than twelve, all the other “classes” are open to everyone, including the youngest. We asked the co-author of the idea of the children’s workshop and director of JazzFest Brno, Vilém Spilka, for further information. more
Filip Míšek and Ema Brabcová have worked together for as many as twenty years already. They met each other back in 1999 in the group Roe-Deer, as part of which they created their own project called Khoiba. Under this name they released their albums Nice Traps (2004) and Mellow Drama (2007), shone on the domestic scene and drew attention to themselves in neighbouring Germany, but then each of the protagonists set out on their own paths – Filip came up with the solo project Dikolson and Ema was active first in the group Luno and later became part of The Antagonists under the leadership of Jan P. Muchow. Only in January 2019 did the resurrected Khoiba draw attention to itself – first with the single Log and two months later with the album Khoiba. As part of an intensive spring concert the duo is also coming to perform in Brno. The concert will take place in Kabinet múz on 24 April and supporting Khoiba will be Jan Boroš with Čáry života [Life Lines], this year’s winner of the Apollo award. more
The JAZZFESTBRNO Festival is expanding this year with the new Tension programme line, which will feature musicians on the borderline between jazz and electronic music. One of the performers who will appear on 28 March in the Praha space in Brno will be the Czech-Ukrainian duo Zabelov Group, which has recently released a new album called Eg. This interview with Roman Zabelov (accordion, voice, piano, organ, harp…) and Jan Šikl (drums, trumpet, guitar, percussion…) was done in a Prague café just before a rehearsal of the band.
Bára Zmeková is releasing her new album called LUNAVES these days. She will officially present it in Brno as well. The launch of the album will take place in the Kabinet múz on Tuesday 19 March. more
The Slovak group Kiero Grande, two Polish bands and the Brno musician Jan Fic with his solo project progressed from the competition Blues Aperitiv to the international festival Blues Alive in Šumperk. Jan, or Honza as he is informally called, who under the label Red Bird Instruments makes cigar box guitars and other instruments, is otherwise known as the frontman of The Weathermakers, playing their raw blues even at Porta. And in several festivals he appeared as leader of the mock country group The Honzíci. The interview that follows took place on the occasion of the release of the solo album Město (City), which Jan Fic together with the producer Martin Kyšperský officially presented on 17 December in Brno’s Stereo – Vinyl Culture Shop. more
The Cameroonian musician Richard Bona is returning to Brno after a year and a half. While last year the audience in the Janáček Theatre had their breath taken away by his Afro-Cuban project Heritage, this time he is coming with his international group Richard Bona Group. When on 25 November in the Sono Centre we are admiring Bono’s virtuoso guitar playing, it would be good to be aware while he may have inherited his sense of rhythm and general relationship to music from his ancestors, his current level is the result of his hard work. At least this was something he emphasised in our interview, in which we also covered Bono’s love of flamenco and for his club, which he recently opened not far from Paris. more
On Friday 19 October the big band Cotatcha Orchestra performed in HaDivadlo with an important foreign guest: the trombonist, composer and arranger Ilja Reijngoud. After the review of the concert we are now also bringing you an interview with this Dutch jazzman, holder of a Latin Grammy and other significant awards. Reijngoud answered our questions shortly before the Brno concert. more
This week in Prague and Brno the English singer Chris Norman, founding and long-time member of the popular band Smokie, will be performing. His concert in the Brno DRFG Arena will be on Saturday 6 October and he will perform at the Prague Forum Karlín two days earlier. more
The Jazz Groove Brno festival will take place in several venues in Brno from 2 October to 5 December 2018. With its director Josef Buchta we talk not just about this year’s programme but primarily about the new name and the new content of the event, which you can learn more about at groovebrno.cz. more
It is a pity to only read an interview with Marta Kovářová, leader of the groups Budoár staré dámy. Marta is such a personality as a speaker that it is better to hear her. Or also to watch her. But on the other hand, as you will learn from the interview, which took place on the occasion of the 20th birthday of the group, a good song should be able to stand up without a pictorial accompaniment. And perhaps a good narrative will still interest us in written form. more
Jonn Del Toro Richardson: As a guitarist I have to concentrate on myself and not on others
From 30 August to 10 September the blues guitarist from Texas Jonn Del Toro Richardson will be touring the Czech Republic. One of his performances will take place in South Moravia – 2 September in the Strážničan House of Culture in Strážnice. Further concerts will take place for example on 30 August in Valašské Meziříčí, and 7 and 10 September in Ostrava. Jonn Del Toro Richardson has so far released only one solo album (a second is in preparation for 2019), but as a much sought after studio and concert guitarist he has worked with many of the top blues performers. more
On Monday 30 July the guest of Folk Holidays in Náměšť nad Oslavou will be the English singer-songwriter John Smith. The organisers speak of him as a “hidden treasure of exquisite folk singing” and emphasise his album from last year Headlong with its personal confessions to his wife Joanne. We spoke with Smith, who his guitar idol and model John Renbourn called “the future of folk”, by telephone. more
The mandolin player Martin Krajíček plays in various genres of groups. He has his own acoustic trio, is a member of the Jitka Šuranská Trio, plays in the “Mexican” group Mariachi Espuelas and in Cimbal Classica, plays klezmer and also teaches the mandolin. Since last year he has also been the organiser of the Mandolin Festival in Boskovice. This year it will take place from 8 to 10 June. more
This year Miloš Štědroň is taking part as artist in residence at the festival Concentus Moraviae. This was a welcome pretext for an interview. It covered his musical beginnings, his path to a musical education, his artistic development and his famous teachers, his inclination to the legacy of the musical avant-garde as well as why he suddenly kept a certain distance from it, how he dedicated himself to faithful and successful cooperation with the Theatre Goose on a String as well as how he was affected by the political changes of the period, how he overcame their pressure, how he worked with today’s interviewer a banned playwright, how he wrote for the wonderful Due Boemi di Praga, how he taught music and the history of music and worked as a populariser, how he knowledgably interpreted ancient music, but also Leoš Janáček, how he worked as an editor, how he became a significant and famous cultural figure, and not just in Brno, and how all the tasks he set himself in his varied and rich creative life were and are being fulfilled, and the joy he has had from it all. more
Pavel Koudelka, former drummer with the bands Dunaj, Z kopce, Krutnava and Mňága a Žďorp, recently became a member of two new groups. One of them is the drumming duo Zesilovači with Pavel Fajt and the second is Kucharski. In this group he works with musicians known from the Třebíč group FruFru – the vocalist Václav Bartoš, guitarist Vladimír Dudek and bass guitarist Adam Kotrba – and with the keyboard player Víťa Košíček. Kucharski will be giving their first concert on Thursday 17 May in Brno at the Stará Pekárna. more
Every year during Holy Week, the Easter Festival of Sacred Music prepares the Tenebrae - chants of lamentations and responsories performed in the dark on the eve of the feast. After ensemble performances of Zelenka's and Gesualdo's chants, Ensemble Versus have decided to present a choral repertoire of Czech origin for this year's edition. Another change is that the Tenebrae have moved from the church setting to Brno's three underground water reservoirs at Žlutý Kopec, which each evening will host three concerts lasting about forty minutes. Viewers can choose the hour that suits them best. This review looks at the first of the Tenebrae held on Holy Wednesday, 16 April, in reservoir no. 2. more
Yesterday's opening concert of the 32nd Easter Festival of Sacred Music, held in the newly renovated Church of St. James, offered more than an hour of contemplation with the St. John Passion by the contemporary Estonian composer and this year's jubilarian, Arvo Pärt (*1935). The work was performed by the vocal ensemble Martinů Voices with artistic director Lukáš Vasilek, soloists Jiří Brückler, Ondřej Holub, Alena Hellerová, Jana Kuželová, Ondřej Benek and Martin Kalivoda, accompanied by a chamber ensemble: Daniela Valtová Kosinová (organ), Pavla Tesařová (violin), Lukáš Pospíšil (cello), Vladislav Borovka (oboe), Martin Petrák (bassoon). more
The Ondráš Military Artistic Ensemble took a dance across the peaks and valleys of the Carpathian Arch in the première of their new show Through the Carpathians. The new show by the professional part of the ensemble took place on the stage of the Radost Theatre in Brno. And it was truly a joy to watch this new venture. It sees the ensemble leave the spectacular choreography behind for a while and return to its original folk roots without giving up on any of its own expressive style. more
The spring concert by the Diversa Quartet offered works by purely Czech composers for the first time in a long time. The event, held on the evening of Monday, 7 April at the Villa Löw-Beer, was subtitled Tempus est iocundum after a love song from the Carmina Burana manuscript. It was the song's exuberance that inspired the dramaturgy of the concert, which was accompanied by an ensemble made up of Barbara Tolarová (1st violin), Jan Bělohlávek (2nd violin), David Křivský (viola) and Iva Wiesnerová (cello). more
Another of the jazz evenings regularly organised by the Brno Philharmonic was dedicated to the duo Will Vinson (alto saxophone) and Aaron Parks (piano). These musicians have been working together in various formations for twenty years. So they decided that it was time to try the most intimate and, according to many, the most difficult - playing as a mere duo. These mid-generation jazz musicians performed a selection of classical jazz material as well as several of their own compositions on Monday 10 March at the Besední dům. 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
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
Editorial
The motto of this year's ProART Festival is Transform_Heal_Through_Art. The international workshop festival of dance, music, acting, photography and other performing arts for professionals and the general public combines daytime art workshops with an evening programme. The Brno leg of the festival will take place at the Villa Engelsmann. more
Sunday sees the start of the Easter Festival of Sacred Music
The St. John Passion by Estonian composer Arvo Pärt will open the 32nd Easter Festival of Sacred Music this Sunday. The renowned French ensemble Les Traversées Baroques, which specialises in the enlightened interpretation of Baroque music, will also be visiting the festival for the first time. more
Another Ženfest is to take place in Brno. The line-up includes Lenka Dusilová, Dagmar Voňková and Kaya
This year will see the fourth annual Ženfest pod třešní open-air music festival, which will once again take place in Trchova Zahrada garden near the Svitava River in the district of Brno-Maloměřice and Obřany. The garden will set the stage for the music of various female artists. The festival is hosted by singer-songwriter Martina Trchová, this year nominated for an Anděl Award for her album 90 % štěstí. more
Meeting of UNESCO Creative Cities of Music in Pesaro, Italy
From 8 to 11 April 2025, Pesaro, Italy, will host the annual International Meeting of UNESCO Cities of Music. This city, known as the birthplace of Gioacchino Rossini, was, like Brno, included in the UNESCO Creative Cities Network in 2017. more
During April and May, Brno's Metro Music Bar will host several exceptional names from the world scene - British soul singer Mica Millar, guitar legend Neil Zaza and charismatic rocker Marco Mendoza, who has played with Whitesnake, Thin Lizzy and The Dead Daisies. more
This year sees Brno City Theatre continue its tradition of festive Easter concerts. This time, the latest symphonic work by composer Zdenek Merta will be performed, accompanied by poems by Petr Štěpán and complemented by Zora Jandová's paintings and sculptures by Pavel Tasovský. more
Brno Music Marathon 2025 invites you to enjoy some unique encounters spanning genres and continents
During the summer, Brno's streets, squares, courtyards and courtyards will be abuzz with the Brno Music Marathon 2025 festival. This year for the tenth time. To be held at the beginning of August, this multi-genre festival will offer four days packed with musical discoveries, powerful emotions and prominent names from around the world. You can look forward to a selection of world music, jazz, folk, acoustic and experimental music from more than ten countries. more
In mid-June, the Brno City Theatre will be hosting a festival showcase of professional theatre entitled Dokořán (Open Doors for) Musical Theatre, the only festival dedicated to presenting contemporary musical theatre works. The festival's dramaturgs have compiled a selection of ten of the most interesting productions representing the best currently on offer on stages at home and abroad. The show will be complemented by an exhibition marking 80 years of the Brno City Theatre, as well as a concert by Meteor from Prague. more
The Brno Philharmonic is to perform one of the 20th century's most demanding symphonies. Cellist Steven Isserlis will also be appearing
One of the world's finest cellists and one of the 20th century's most challenging symphonies. This is the programme of Schumann and Shostakovich, a concert the Brno Philharmonic has been preparing for this week. Steven Isserlis is coming to Brno to perform Robert Schumann' s Cello Concerto. more
Brno flautist Michaela Koudelková seeks support for her debut CD
Flautist Michaela Koudelková has launched a Hithit campaign to raise funds for the release of her first CD featuring sonatas by G. F. Handel and A. Corelli on the renowned SUPRAPHON label. The project will showcase the virtuosity of Czech musical artists. The choice of repertoire is also unique, as it is almost unheard of performed on the recorder. more
