Reviews
As happened last year, this year’s Easter Festival of Religious Music, with the subtitle of ‘Witness’, ended with the Brno Philharmonic Orchestra and the Czech Philharmonic Choir Brno. The Church of St. John on Minoritská street resounded to a work that was very close to the main theme of the festival – the story of Paul of Tarsus in the shape of Mendelssohn’s oratorio St. Paul. more
The classical ballet Sleeping Beauty in four parts (prologue and three acts) by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was performed by the National Theatre Brno on the stage of the Mahen Theatre. more
In the week before Easter JazzFest entered its second half. Another series of concerts linking various forms of jazz from traditional through jazz-rock to funk begun with an evening of Brno and Prague jazz legends in CED Husa na provázku and followed by a double concert of the Jiří Šimek guitar trio and the stellar Poogie Bell Band with their unmistakeable (and resounding) frontman on his drum kit. more
In including Patricia Barber in the concert series of the National Theatre Brno the director Filip Haberman has fulfilled not just his own dreams. The original jewel of the American jazz scene filled the Mahen Theatre with listeners and provided a spectacular musical experience. It was as if the space was predestined for the performance of this concert. The theatre auditorium underlined the singer’s grandeur, but at the same time created a chamber, almost club-like atmosphere. This time Patricia Barber travelled to the Czech Republic from her hometown of Chicago as a trio of young musicians – with the double bass player Patrick Mulcahy and the drummer Nat Friedman. more
In the intimate setting of the Theatre Husa na provázku the programme director of Brno’s JazzFest, Vilém Spilka decided to hold two smaller chamber concerts. It was a good decision since the audience had an opportunity from up close to see soloists swapping with musicians and so become part of an interesting event. more
In Brno’s Blahoslavův dům a concert took place drawing on the legacy of Jan Garbarek and The Hilliard Ensemble. Rather than copying the project from the nineties the ensemble Cantar Lontano and Gavino Murgia provided an authentic interpretation and it was a great success. more
The sixteenth JazzFestBrno – along with other strong programming – offers a chance to compare the playing of several excellent saxophonists. Immediately on the opening night (23 March) the exquisite Joe Lovano will be playing in the Sono Centre, and on 19 April in the same place Chris Potter will have his chance to shine as several times winner of various journalists’ surveys of the best players in the world on the tenor saxophone. Listeners will have a chance to compare two European players on Wednesday 29 March, when on the stage of the Sono Centre the Czech saxophonist based in Denmark, Luboš Soukup, and his Norwegian contemporary Marius Neset, also living in Copenhagen, take turns on stage. And on 5 April a young Czech who is studying in Norway, Michal Wróblewski, will be performing with his international ensemble. more
Love at a Distance is a contemporary opera that is nonetheless a clear classic. The National Theatre Brno production is of this excellent work by Kaiji Saariaho that has become part of the world repertoire. The selection and realisation of this production has uniquely and significantly scored in a domestic context. more
The combination of modern jazz with tramp songs is insane at first glance or – as Vilém Spilka likes to say – a piece with a "Cimrman element". In reality, however, Spilka's new album Podvod (Deception) with adaptations of Honza Nedvěd's songs is a surprising but, in terms of musical tradition, a perfectly understandable project. more
Nearly sixty students of the Faculty of Music at the Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts joined forces to launch two operas in their home-based Orlí Street Theatre. The evening belonged to a pair of chamber operas. The first one was the premiere of the short opera Mistrová, aneb Když bolševici zrušili Vánoce (Forewomen aka When the Bolsheviks Cancelled Christmas) by Petr Hala. And the opera The Little Prince by Miroslav Hába was performed for the first time after nearly forty years. more
The music career of the violinist and singer Jitka Šuranská resembles a spiral motion. More than ten years ago, she chose cooperation in a duo with Jiří Plocek over dulcimer music, in which she was a regular member. After that, she played folk songs alone with a looper, and her first solo album Nězachoď slunečko was truly a solo album but with many guests. And now she is releasing another record. However, this time as a member of a new band, a very compact and bright sounding trio. By the way, the fact that the word TRIO is on the album cover – unlike the names of the band members – in capitals stresses that it is truly a band album and not a solo one. And in this lies both the greatest strength as well as some minor weaknesses of the recording. more
The new family comedy Jak jsem se ztratil aneb Malá vánoční povídka (How I Got Lost or a Little Christmas Story) bets on more than just a music flashback to the sweet early 1960s. The Brno National Theatre has been playing it since its weekend premiere. A seven-member band directly on stage forms the audio and narrative backdrop to the sentimental journey back in time. Older folks will emotionally reflect on the sweet "sixties", while those younger will discover this decade. And that is what the new production of director Martin Františák bets on. more
The prologue of the November echoes of the JazzFest in Brno was Wednesday's concert of a four-member star formation around guitarist John Scofield. Their five-week European tour promoting the new album Country For Old Men released in September of this year continued in the Sono Centrum. more
It is like the state budget: It can be considered the budget of any new government only two years after its election. This applies in all aspects, starting from the perspective of an idea and ending with the purely practical, i.e. technical, promotional and organisational perspective. Two years ago, the Janáček Brno Festival was the proverbial tipping point. The new director of the organiser Brno National Theatre had only been in office for a year and the opera director Jiří Heřman for six months. A lot of change was going on at Brno City Hall (which remains the only major benefactor of large music and theatre institutions; it seems like this does not concern the regions and the state) and the existing dramaturgical nature of the event was dismantled after the festival. After two years, the concert series can be seen as a series of alternating successes, however, with some worrying symptoms of amateurism. more
The musical scene of the Brno City Theatre stages the musical comedy Lemonade Joe. Therefore, one of the most popular post-war heroes, who has been criss-crossing the Czech stages since 1944, returned to the local main stage last weekend. He became immortal in 1964 thanks to a brilliant film, a replica of which cannot be expected this time though. First of all, the theatre version contains many more songs, but the screenplay is different from the extraordinary celluloid version in some moments and in the final result. The new production directed by Petr Gazdík turned the well-known title into a wild narrative musical show that does not claim to be related to the famous film. On the contrary, thanks to its original humour and the method of its use, the new production tries to break through all the widely popular quotes to its own and legitimate version. more
The concert by the Brno Contemporary Orchestra in the courtyard of Brno’s Špilberk Castle on Tuesday, 16 June, offered the audience a chance to hear the castle’s carillon in quite a different guise – as a solo musical instrument. Entitled Vězeňské zvony (Prison Bells), the performance alluded not only to the existence and function of the carillon itself but also to the complex history of the castle. The concert featured harpsichordist Daria Savvateeva, soprano Irena Troupová, and Petr Hladík as carillon player. more
The prologue to the Concentus Moraviae festival took place, unusually, in the Italian city of Cremona – home of the Walter Stauffer Foundation and Academy, which nurtures string teaching and the city’s traditions – as early as mid-April. This year the Foundation concluded a memorandum of cooperation with the festival, resulting in the String Quartet Master Classes project in Kroměříž on 16–18 June. The stage was set on 15 June at Pernštejn Castle, where the Italian Quartetto di Cremona joined forces with cellist Peter Jarůšek for a memorable concert. more
A Piece of Kroměříž in Brno at the Church of St John
The final concert of the 14th season of the Bacha na Mozarta (Watch Out for Mozart) series drew audiences to the Minorite Church of St John on Monday, 8 June, for a programme drawing on the collections of the Kroměříž Music Archive. The evening’s programme brought together specific liturgical forms with the representational demands of the courtly culture of the time. Performed by the SILENTIUM! ensemble under the direction of Tomáš Netopil and with choral preparation by Tereza Válková, the concert featured works by Pavel Josef Vejvanovský, Giovanni Felice Sances, Franz Ignaz Biber, and Philipp Jacob Rittler, some in their modern-day premieres. more
The Concentus Moraviae festival presented its sixteenth concert of the year, thematically dedicated to the number four, at Valtice Castle on Sunday, 7 June. This year’s international showcase brings together quartets of the most varied instrumental combinations and genres, presenting programmes across Moravia and Lower Austria centred on the quartet repertoire. In this spirit, the Baroque theatre of Valtice Castle hosted, in collaboration with the Young Classical Artists Trust, a concert focused on world music performed by the international Fibonacci Quartet. The young quartet – specifically Kryštof Kohout and Luna De Mol on violin, Elliot Kempton on viola, and Findlay Spence on cello – chose masterpieces by Leoš Janáček (1854–1928) and Béla Bartók (1881–1945). more
The cycle of classical music concerts directed by its founder, Barbara Maria Willi, has been an integral part of cultural events in the Moravian capital for twenty-three years. The audience in Brno has already been introduced to a number of outstanding personalities and ensembles with whom Barbara Maria Willi regularly cooperates. This year's opening concert, traditionally held on Wednesday, 11 February, in the hall of the Convent of the Merciful Brothers with a subtitle Music in Motion offered a combination of the art of the fortepiano with flute played by Sofia Mavrogenidou and accompanied by young dancers Klementýna Anna Špičková and Adam Mišo, choreographed by David Strnad. more
The final concert of this year’s instalment of the Barbara Maria Willi Presents series offered a unique project that on 4 December brought together two ensembles in the Convent of the Brothers of Mercy: Cappella Pratensis and Ramillete de Tonos. They showed the audience the many different ways in which one can work with the polyphonic repertoire of the 15th and 16th centuries. The programme intertwined sacred and secular music, and purely vocal, vocal-instrumental and purely instrumental pieces. more
The rediscovery and digitisation of the Brno polyphonic manuscripts BAM 1 and BAM 2 has opened a new chapter in the study and performance of Renaissance music. At the crossroads of historical research, modern technology, and artistic interpretation stands Past Forward, a cross-border project connecting institutions from the Netherlands, Belgium and the Czech Republic. At its artistic core are two musicians whose approaches complement each other: Tim Braithwaite, artistic director of Cappella Pratensis, and Kateřina Maňáková, lutenist, teacher of early plucked instruments at Janáček Academy of Performing Arts and guarantor of the entire initiative. In this conversation, they discuss working with previously overlooked sources, the challenges of historically informed performance, the promises of international collaboration, and their vision for the future of early-music interpretation. more
The concert by Filharmonie Brno under Dennis Russell Davies on Thursday 6 November in Besední dům offered a fascinating programme combining the work of two contemporary composers from the former Soviet Union. The performers included Armenian baritone Aksel Daveyan, violist Julian Veverica, percussionist Lukáš Krejčí, and the Austrian Hard-Chor Linz choir under choirmaster Alexander Koller. more
Brno-born pianist and Director General of the Czech Philharmonic, David Mareček, is appearing together with cellist Václav Petr on a concert tour in South Korea. During the first week of November, the duo is presenting Czech repertoire on prestigious stages, including the Seogwipo Arts Center, Yongin Poeun Art Hall and Daegu Concert House. more
Moravian Autumn, organised by the Brno Philharmonic Orchestra, has long been one of the most important musical events of the autumn season. For the third time it also included the student project New World of Moravian Autumn – living proof that the connection between academia and professional practice can yield stimulating and deeply artistic results. This project, which originated at JAMU as an experiment within the course in practical dramaturgy, has evolved into a fully-fledged and respected part of the festival programme over the past few years. more
22 September this year marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis (1875-1911) - Lithuanian artist, composer, painter and choirmaster, founder of Lithuanian national music and a representative of Symbolism and Art Nouveau. The concert entitled Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis - MKČ 150, which clearly referenced this anniversary, took place on Thursday 23 October at Besední dům. The programme combined Čiurlionis’s compositions with works by František Chaloupka, who also collaborated on the project as dramaturge. The concert was given the umbrella title Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis / František Chaloupka: Moje cesta (My Journey), a nod to one of Čiurlionis' pictorial triptychs. Chaloupka's work, however, does not follow directly on from Čiurlionis. It follows its own path, but connects with him through inspiration in mythology, where it sees a strong reflection of the present. more
The concert evening by PhilHarmonia Octet Prague with guest baritone Roman Hoza brought a programme conceived with curatorial sensitivity - with emphasis on the continuity of the classical tradition and its later metamorphoses. more
The Brno staging of Janáček's Jenůfa at the Moravian Autumn Festival once again proved that even after many years, an original directorial concept can still reveal new dramatic and musical nuances when refreshed through a partly renewed cast and interpretive inventiveness. Martin Glaser’s direction remains firmly grounded in a realistic reading of the work, yet in combination with Robert Kružík’s musical leadership the production feels alive, gripping, and emotionally genuine. more
The chamber music programme of the 53rd Moravian Autumn International Festival on Thursday featured songs by Franz Schubert arranged for guitar and voice by the duo María Cristina Kiehr (soprano) and Pablo Márquez (romantic guitar). The evening, entitled Longing, took place in Brno’s Besední dům. more
Liane Sadler and Elias Conrad bring an intimate synthesis of Renaissance flutes and lutes to Brno. They adapt polyphonic compositions, various dance forms and airs de cour for their instruments, using historical improvisation techniques such as diminution or bastarda. Sadler & Conrad is an ensemble included in the prestigious pan-European S-EEEmerging project focused on the professional and sustainable development of young early music ensembles. They come to Brno at the invitation of the Concentus Moraviae festival, which is one of the twelve partners of this project. As part of their residency, they will perform at a concert in the series "Barbara Maria Willi presents..." on 7/10 at 7 pm in the Convent of the Brothers of Mercy. more
Editorial
The Janáček Opera of the National Theatre Brno Returns to the Courtyard of Špilberk Castle This Summer
Opera Summer 2026 opens in the great courtyard of Špilberk Castle with Aida, starring Csilla Boross in the title role. Three more operas will follow. more
The multi-genre UPROSTŘED Festival launches next Wednesday, kicking off the summer season with a programme that runs through August. The festival breathes life into public space in central Brno and brings local communities together. It packs in 36 free open-air events – music, dance, theatre and happenings at spots across the wider city centre. more
Musical-Operetta Magazine Awards 2025: The Winners Are Announced
At the twelfth edition of the Dokořán Festival of Music Theatre organised by the Brno City Theatre, the results of the Musical-Operetta Magazine Awards – the only professional awards in the field – were traditionally announced. more
Janáček Turns 172 and the Sinfonietta Turns 100. Brno Gears Up for a Birthday Open-Air, with an Opera Straight from Salzburg
The celebrations of the 172nd anniversary of Leoš Janáček’s birth will take place this year ahead of schedule – on Tuesday, 23 June 2026, on the small square in front of the Janáček Theatre. The earlier date has been chosen deliberately – on 26 June, Janáček’s most celebrated composition, the Sinfonietta, will be exactly 100 years old. A packed programme offers free entertainment all day long and will mark the launch of an exclusive birthday offer of tickets for the autumn festival. more
Over a hundred concerts across more than twenty themed stages will fill Brno in early August. The eleventh year of the Brno Music Marathon will transform the city centre into a vibrant space where music spills into streets, clubs, theatres, courtyards, and unusual venues – from the historical water tanks and the Alfa Passage to the “Glass Room” of Villa Tugendhat on Moravian Square. more
Cultural newsletter of the Department of Culture of the City of Brno for February 2026
The Brno cultural newsletter provides an overview of events and opportunities related to theatres, clubs, and various cultural activities in Brno in the coming period. more
Musica Florea Brings the Finest Spanish Baroque to Brno
Musica Florea continues its quest for unusual composers and historical styles to present to the Czech audience. The March lineup of the Musica Florea Bohemia 2026 series will be dominated by the Stabat Mater concert, a selection of works by Spanish Baroque masters. Soprano Beatriz Lafont Murcia will sing with the orchestra. The Brno performance will take place in the Hall of the Merciful Brothers (formerly the Convent). more
The Golden Coupon Competition: Treasure Hunt of the National Theatre Brno
The National Theatre Brno has prepared a rare contest for all entertainment lovers and theatregoers. From 26 February to 3 April, they can participate in the Golden Coupon Competition with a grand finale on Good Friday. more
Vladimír Movement Performance in Industra Brno
In mid-March, the movement performance Vladimír by ORBITA returns to the stage. It is a personal and artistic testimony of dancer Vladimír Kloubek, who celebrated his 80th birthday last year, featuring Kloubek as the main character of the performance and his two younger selves on one stage. The production will be staged in the large hall of Industra Brno. more
Brno City Theatre Adds Musical Performances in April and May
Due to exceptional audience demand, the Brno City Theatre is adding extra performances of the musicals ViK!NG and Les Misérables on the Music Stage in April and May. more
