News
International Dance Day has been celebrated every year around the world since 1982. In Brno, dancers will celebrate it at the piazzetta in front of the Janáček Theatre. The programme includes dance classes, performances by the NdB Ballet and the Brno Dance Conservatory. more
Cotatcha Orchestra is giving a concert to mark the 120th anniversary of birth of the big band giant Duke Ellington. The orchestra will appear in Brno's HaDivadlo together with the Swiss vocalist Géraldine Schnyder. more
Javorník with Jiskra. Joint performance of folklore ensembles in Brno
Folklore ensemble Javorník Brno will perform together with guest ensemble of songs and dances Jiskra from Pilsen. Part of the evening in the Dělnický dům will also be a party with dulcimer music. more
Miloš Štědroň on the topic: Milan and Ludvík Kundera about Janáček
In his lecture, Miloš Štědroň will present Ludvík Kundera as Janáček's assistant and expert in his work. Milan Kundera will be shown as the author of the respected book Můj Janáček [My Janáček]. The lecture will take place in the Moravian Regional Library. The event is an accompanying programme to an exhibition about the translations of Milan Kundera’s works. more
The.Switch will celebrate 15 years since the release of their debut album
Representatives of the Czech crossover scene The.Switch will celebrate 15 years since the release of their album named Beautiful with a concert at the Fléda music club. The concert, which is part of a tour called BTFL15YRS, will also feature guest appearances of Sunset Trail and Denoi from Brno. more
VUS Ondráš Gives the Premiere Performance of Krajinou času
Vojenský umělecký soubor Ondráš (the Ondráš Military Art Ensemble) is preparing a new project in which both professional parts of the ensemble will perform and together celebrate the 65th anniversary of their founding. Krajinou času (Through the Landscape of Time) offers a mosaic of folk dance and music from selected regions of Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia and Slovakia. more
The Bonjour Brno Festival Enters its 25th Season
The festival of French and francophone culture this year celebrates its 25th birthday. During the month of April Bonjour Brno will be presenting Brno with artistic productions directly from France and events inspired by the culture of the francophone countries. The programme includes concerts, films, plays, exhibitions, literary events, gastronomy and street art. There will also be the traditional Le Rendez-vous, a pétanque tournament and a children’s programme. This year’s motto is Tradition in the Move. more
Symposium: Art, Music, Management Returns to Brno’s JAMU
After two years the Symposium: Art | Music | Management is returning to Brno’s JAMU (Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts). Three days in April will be given over to debate, new ideas and exchanging of contacts between professionals, teachers and students. The 7th Symposium promises more than thirty lecturers from four countries and an accompanying programme. This time the symposium focuses on the education of artistic, and primarily music managers. more
Flamenco Seminar with Cristina Aguilera
The dancer Cristina Aguilera from Granada will be heading to Brno. Aside from a concert in Besední dům there will also be an opportunity to attend her two days of dance courses. The courses are divided into three levels. more
Clarinettist and Grammy holder Oran Etkin will perform as part of the Mladí ladí jazz [Young People Tune Jazz] in the Stará Pekárna music club in Brno. The guests of the concert will be Peter Korman, Tibor Žida, Michael Grombiřík, Dušan Čermák and Roman Horváth. For the next day, Etkin is preparing a music workshop for children, which will take place using his own entertaining teaching method called Timbalooloo. more
The poetic title Květy nevadnoucí (Flowers Never Fading) hides the most recent publishing achievement of Jiří Plocek. This compilation CD celebrates a quarter of a century since the establishment of the Moravian folklore series in his GNOSIS BRNO publishing house, which released fourteen albums created between 1995 and 2005. And they are not just ordinary albums. Jiří Plocek's enthusiasm and feeling for song is indisputable, but there is much more coming from the recordings – for example, it is the enthusiasm of the singers themselves, which Jiří Plocek fuelled during the recording sessions, while letting them play and sing according to their own will and mood. I must also emphasise the choice of performers themselves. The names have really become iconic by now – František Okénka, Zdeněk Kašpar, Karel Rajmic, Vlasta Grycová, Jiřina Miklošková and many others. Unfortunately, some of them have already departed from this world. Others, which we hear on the album as gifted children, are already rising to become another generations of singers – which is the case of Tomáš Beníček. I'm intentionally mentioning the singers, but the album itself also has a high musical quality. However, all the songs are performed by exceptional performers. This also gives them uniqueness in the spirit of a living folk tradition. more
Two years after the monothematic album Bleděmodré město (Pale Blue City), for which the Brno-based group Nevermore & Kosmonaut received a nomination for the genre-specific Anděl Award, the band released a new album with a mysterious name XCR-9. The subheading Písně do rakety (Songs for a Space Shuttle) reveal more. While on the last album we walked through the streets of the city of Brno together with Michal Šimíček and his band, this time the singer-songwriter, who has been using the nickname Kosmonaut for years, is taking us on a fictitious journey into space. more
The album Folk Swings of the Brno-based B-Side Band is being vividly discussed on social networks. Can a big band take the liberty of to playing the "sacred" songs of Czech folk? And what if these compositions are sung along with the band directly by their authors such as Jaromír Nohavica, Vlasta Redl or Slávek Janoušek? However, while the above might have been able to have their say concerning the arrangements, Karel Kryl, Zuzana Navarová or Wabi Ryvola could no longer make any comments regarding the makeovers of their songs… We talked to Petr Kovařík and Pavel Zlámal, members of the orchestra, about how the album was created, why Ryvola's song 'Tereza' sounds like a Cuban dance, and why 'Podvod' ('Scam') by Honza Nedvěd is played only as an instrumental piece. The two guys have actually created new arrangements for widely famed as well as less well-known folk songs, which now appear on this album. more
Tiché lodi ('Silent Ships') is not a band, but a project of the guitarist and singer René Müller, who lives in Brno. While he recorded his previous album Časy vody ('Times of Water' – 2015) working together with Roman Cipísek Cerman, his former colleague from the band Hynkovy zámky ('Hynek's Locks'), Müller is now appearing all by himself on the new album – as writer of the music and lyrics, guitarist and singer, or – in his case more precisely – narrator. more
Until recently, this Brno singer with the shortest given and family names was the leader of the blues band The Weathermakers. He also led the ephemeral "tramping" group The Honzíci. However, the main thing that he attracts attention with – in addition to the guitars and other instruments that he produces under the brand Red Bird – is his original solo production. After the mature debut Město [The City] (2018), he has now made himself heard with a new album entitled Potom [After]. In the lyrics he goes down to the core again, being able to transform his personal problems into timeless stories and extraordinary poetic expressions. And even though he abandoned the blues form in most of his songs, the recording, in which Martin Kyšperský once again participated as a producer, has a blues nature by its very essence. more
