Interviews
He likes solitude in the middle of nature as well as a city atmosphere; he went on the path from a rock band to a symphonic orchestra. The guest of this year’s Moravian Autumn festival is the Estonian composer Erkki-Sven Tüür. When we were arranging the schedule of the telephone interview, we both forgot to take into consideration the different time zones and nearly missed each other. But in the end we found one other - after all everything is connected nowadays, as he too mentioned. more
The Janáček Theatre will celebrate its fiftieth anniversary on Friday by performing the premiere of Leoš Janáček’s opera Jenufa. The director of the performance is the current director of the National Theatre Brno – Martin Glaser. We spoke together about his production as well as the changes the theatre has gone through under his management and where the festivals Theatre World and Janáček Brno were heading. more
The need for a new symphonic and cantate concert hall in Brno is first mentioned in a dictionary of music by Pazdírek in 1929. Since that time this issue has come to the surface in more frequent intervals, fuelled by the existence and needs of the philharmonic orchestra, by the growth and requirements of the symphonic audience and also by the expectations of foreign visitors of Janáček’s city. There were different stages of realization of projects at Žerotínovo square (currently Bílý dům), Joliot Curie square (what is now the last section of Šumavská street with the commercial high rises), Obránců míru street (currently the ombudsman’s palace on Údolní street) and – at the turn of the 1980s and 1990s – the undeveloped area between Besední and Veselá street. The quiet struggle, which has taken place for this especially lucrative and exceptionally advantageous place for a philharmonic orchestra, has recently come to a promising outcome. more
Looking at the daily schedule of Zdeněk Pololáník, one cannot tell that he will be eighty in October. Just last Sunday, he performed at a mass in the morning, inspected the performance of his opera Noc plná světla: transparent none repeat scroll in Olomouc in the afternoon and played at a concert in Besední dům in Brno in the evening. His music is well known to concert visitors and movie fans; some of his songs are sung at churches. This year’s Brno Organ Festival is devoted to his jubilee. We met in the village of Ostrovačice where he works and plays the organ at the local church. more
Talking to music veterans about music is entertaining and painful at the same time. You learn things you had no idea about but, at the same time, you don’t know where to start and how to wrap up. The topics covered are growing and you feel like it would be a shame to shape the interview. An interview with the legend of Czech jazz Jan Dalecký confirmed this one hundred percent. If the name confuses you, he was formerly known as Jan Beránek. I did ask about the change, by the way. more
This week Janáček Theatre in Brno will see the farewell performance by the prima ballerina of the Brno National Theatre Jana Přibylová. It is going to be her night, with the support of her fans and colleagues. However, she says she should bow for them. We discussed the end of her career, new beginnings and a dancer’s free time. We talked about how unfair it is that dancers’ careers are so short or the fact that she has never really left Brno. As we were leaving the café in the theatre building, there was a big photo of her teacher and mentor Kateřina Gratzerová. more
At the end of this week a new organ will be consecrated in the Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary (the so-called Jesuit church). It is an organ dedicated to Brno. The audience will be able to listen to it for the first time on 29 June. A few days later, it will be incorporated into another important event – a concert by Alena Veselá on the occasion of her 91st birthday. We met in Slavia café, on neutral ground between the Faculty of Music of the Janáček Academy of Music and Performing arts and the Besední dům concert hall. We discussed the organ, the concert hall in Brno and cultural grants. more
The biggest problems are those we find closest to us. This applies to cities just as it does to people. The area between the streets Cejl and Francouzská is widely considered to be the most dangerous and the most problematic part of Brno. It is, in fact, a small area which one can cover on foot within just twenty minutes. Or thirty, if one walks really slowly. In our eyes, it has gradually become a major problem we refer to as the Brno Bronx. Many Roma live there and if you go there at night you may never walk again. Why do people think so? What are the local people like and why does this part of Brno host the Ghettofest festival? I sought answers from the co-organiser of the festival Alica Heráková. more
Ten years ago a Pan-European project entitled České sny (Czech Dreams) was born. It was based on the ideas of the International Music Festival of thirteen cities, bringing superb musical performances outside established cultural centres. The creators’ idea was to introduce concerts with unified dramaturgy in selected Czech towns and villages and their respective European twin towns. This year’s domestic part of Czech Dreams will be launched on 22 May, moving abroad on 4 July, when the symbolic flag of the festival will be handed over from Břeclav to Trnava. The manager of the festival Zdenka Kachlová discusses the development of Czech Dreams and its future. more
The first impulse for the interview with the basso Richard Novák was this year’s Easter Festival of Sacred Music. We started and finished the interview with it. Try talking about this year with a man who has been a singer for sixty years. Richard Novák will be 83 this year but he still has it. And if based on the following words he may sound a bit conceited, be aware he is telling it like it is. more
We met in an apartment where Jaromír Nečas has lived since 1946. The music writer and director, folklorist and teacher who discovered world music by accident recently celebrated his 92nd birthday. At the age of six, he was hospitalised in Uherské Hradiště with bone marrow irritation and the prognosis was so bleak he even received his last rites. His fellow patients, a poacher from Znorovy and a winemaker from Petrov would pass glasses of wine back and forth across the bed with the sick boy. Occasionally they would offer him some wine. He claims that was what eventually saved him. By the way, a bottle of traminer was present at our interview. Actually, it was not really an interview but rather story telling or a series of associations which I bumped forward every now and then. We were surrounded by a piano, a few folk instruments and mountains of sheet music and books. more
Guitarist Peter Bernstein will arrive at this year's JazzFestBrno Festival in a trio with Larry Goldings and Bill Stewart. The New York Times referred to them in the 1990s as the best organ trio, and the player level as well as the inventiveness of the ensemble is still as high. Together, they released eight albums and one DVD. Peter Bernstein is among the musicians who were in the "front line" of contemporary jazz in the 1990s. Joshua Redman, Diana Krall, Jimmy Cobb, Joe Lovano and, of course, members of the trio that we will hear in Brno in April were among his colleagues. Our conversation also mainly focused on his "home" band, even though I did not forget to ask about Brad Mehldau, with whom Peter Bernstein often played. more
Barbara Maria Willi is an excellent cembalist, organist and educator. She is one of the dramaturges of the Concentus Moraviae festival and she is also working on her own series of old music. There are many things we could talk about, which is why we agreed at the beginning that we shall talk about two of them. First, the 11th Barbara Maria Willi uvádí (Barbara Maria Willi Presents…) scheduled for next week. And second, the expansion of the Department of Organ and Historic Interpretation at the Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts (JAMU). more
A very interesting building is growing before our eyes on Veveří (street). Once completed, it will be known as Sono Center, a club with superb acoustic properties. The concert hall will be located in a sphere placed between two semicircular concrete blocks. The two blocks will house facilities for musicians, as well as a hotel and a restaurant. We sat down with the dramaturge of Sono Centre Dan Giač and the investor of this project Jiří Štopl to discuss the upcoming programme, the ideal line-up or the very reason why Štopl decided to build the center, as he is also the co-owner of the Sono Records studio. The two gentlemen did not have time to do this interview together but they were okay with my postproduction mixing. more
Singer Vojtěch Dyk and the Brno B-Side Band, led by Josef Buchta, have had just completed a short dream tour. Last week, they had five joint concerts with American Kurt Elling, Grammy winner, rightly regarded as one of the best jazz singers of today. The following interviews took place in the Janáček Theatre on Wednesday, 4th of December. The orchestra had played a sold-out concert at the Mahen Theatre on Tuesday and it had just finished an afternoon rehearsal in the Janáček Theatre. About two hours were left until the next sold-out concert… 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
