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The Kutná Hora International Music Festival is one of the most important chamber music festivals in the Czech Republic. The creator of the dramaturgy and the selection of artists is the artistic director - cellist Jiří Bárta.

Unfortunately, even this year 2021 is associated with covid uncertainty. Last year we managed to hold the festival, albeit on a shifted date, with drapes and all hygienic measures. We all hope and believe in the improvement of the situation, and that is why we are preparing another, already the 14th year of the Kutná Hora festival.

MFKH has become an inseparable part of cultural events in the city with high attendance from all over the Czech Republic and abroad. Since we could not invite foreign artists last year, we decided to move the performance of all of Beethoven's 32 piano sonatas in Konstantin Lifschitz's masterful interpretation to this year. This very significant work of art will be divided into 8 evenings. This increases the total number of chamber music concerts to 16 concerts. We believe that not only for Kutná Hora, this festival will be something truly exceptional this year. In addition to this important project, compositions of classical chamber literature by world-famous authors (Haydn, Mozart, Vivaldi, etc.) will be heard, as well as contemporary and rarely mentioned authors (Tartini, Barber, Kabeláč, Klusák, Górecki, etc.).

Jiří Bárta traditionally connects chamber music concerts and complements them with projects at the crossroads of genres. He included Bach's cantata Ich habe genug (I already have enough of everything) in the program of the 14th Kutná Hora festival for solo bass, oboe and strings connected with an epic poem by Arnošt Lustig performed by Vilma Cibulková, Jiří Lábus and Vilém Udatný entitled "Cantata - Dance of the Mad". The theme of the musical-lyrical band is death as liberation from a world permeated with misery and despair and is an indictment of the most horrific crime in human history.

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The Olomouc International Organ Festival was established in 1969 and takes place every year in September in the Church of St. Mořice.
The founder of the festival was prof. Antonín Schindler (1925 - 2010), who worked as an organist in the church of St. Mořice. Here he had at his disposal a unique instrument by Michael Engler from 1745, which was, however, considerably dilapidated. On the initiative of prof. Schindler's organ was generally repaired and expanded, and it was this reconstruction that prompted the establishment of an organ festival with an international level.
The Olomouc International Organ Festival has become a household name in the organ world, and its quality and level are evidenced by a number of the world's top organists who have performed at the festival. The festival is organized by the Moravian Philharmonic Olomouc.

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The Pardubice Music Spring International Festival has been an important cultural event in the East Bohemian region since 1978. Since 2013, the festival has been organized by Barocco semper giovane, o.p.s. The festival offers music of all stylistic periods, the genre is mainly focused on classical music. Approximately twenty concerts take place every year from the beginning of March to the middle of May in concert halls and monuments of the city of Pardubice and other cities in the region. The festival presents important domestic and foreign artists, chamber ensembles, symphony orchestras, opera and ballet ensembles.

Since 2013, they have performed at the Pardubice Music Spring, for example, the Prague Symphony Orchestra. Prague FOK, Czech Radio Symphony Orchestra, PKF - Prague Philharmonia, Pardubice Chamber Philharmonic, Collegium 1704, Ensemble Inégal and Barocco semper giovane with conductors Heiko Mathias Förster (Germany), Shalev Ad-El (Israel), Petr Altrichter, Václav Luks , Adam Viktora, Tomáš Brauner, Jan Kučera, Marko Ivanović, Marek Šedivý, opera ensemble of the FX Šalda Theater Liberec, ballet ensembles of the Slovak National Theater and Moravian Theater Olomouc, Wihan Quartet, Herold Quartet, GUITAR4MATION - Guitar Quartet (Austria), Five Star Clarinet Quartet, Ciganski diabli (Slovakia), Ondřej Havelka and his Melody Makers, Prague Cello Quartet, Guarneri trio, Smetana trio, violinists Giuliano Carmignola (Italy), Václav Hudeček, Josef Špaček, Jan Mráček, Jiří Vodička, Leoš Čepický and Pavel Šporcl , cellists Jiří Bárta and Tomáš Jamník, pianists Ivo Kahánek, Piers Lane (Great Britain), Igor Ardašev, Adam Skoumal, Jitka Čechová, Nozomi Nakagiri and Yuka Beppu (Japan) , harpsichordists and organists Stéphane Bécha (France), Shalev Ad-El (Israel), Jaroslav Tůma, Aleš Bárta, Pavel Svoboda, further eg flutist Yoshimi Oshima (Japan), clarinetist Ludmila Peterková, trumpeter Oliver Lakota (Germany), tenor Štefan Margita and Petr Nekoranec and many other artists.

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The Autumn Festival of Sacred Music was founded in 1994 and over the twenty-six years of its existence has become a major cultural event in Olomouc. Under the auspices of the archbishop of Olomouc and Moravian metropolitan Msgre Jan Graubner the Festival is organised by MUSICA VIVA in co-operation with the City of Olomouc, the Regional Authority of the Olomouc Region and the Czech Ministry of Culture. The prominent Czech conductor Stanislav Macura was the Festival’s co-founder and over a period of fifteen years served as its artistic director and conductor significantly influencing the Festival’s unique character. The dramaturgy draws upon the immensely rich heritage of brilliant composers of all nations without ignoring contemporary modern sacred music and observes ecumenical principles. The Festival has been recognised for the outstanding artistic quality of guest soloists and internationally renowned quality of vocal and instrumental ensembles. Radio recordings were made from the Festival concerts by Czech Radio, Radio Niederoesterreich (ORF), Slovak Radio and Polish Radio; concerts were broadcasted across Europe via international radio network of EBU. Twenty-five concerts were recorded and broadcasted in co-operation with Czech Television and TV Noe.

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Polička Jazz is a small jazz festival taking part in Polička town since 1996.

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Mid-sized Czech festival focused on all genres of music

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Rock for People (RfP) is one of the largest open-air summer music festivals in the Czech Republic. The festival began in 1995 in the town Český Brod, and in 2007 it was moved to an unused airport in Hradec Králové. The festival features Czech and international acts of various genres, most prominently alternative rock, pop rock, punk rock, and EDM, and has also featured various workshops and recreational activities. Headlining acts have included Muse, Thirty Seconds to Mars, Arctic Monkeys, My Chemical Romance, the Offspring, the Killers, Paramore, and Massive Attack.

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During the two days of the festival, the city becomes a music center and as such introduces its visitors to jazz as originally non-European genre, which, however, has conquered all major musical stages in the world since its inception. In Slaný, top Czech and foreign musicians introduce themselves to the audience. The festival is intended not only for fans of jazz art, but also for the general public. The festival begins with the opening of the gates of the Grand City Center and the chapel of the Museum of National History in Slaný. Then begins a show of concerts with quality jazz, blues, soul, funky and other similarly tuned music, which can inspire both professionals and the lay music public every year.

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The Smetana’s Litomyšl festival is the second oldest music festival in the Czech Republic, and at the same time it is among the largest regular classical music festivals held in the country.

It mainly features opera performances and concerts, as well as gala concerts, oratorios, cantatas and song evenings; that is forms in which vocal artistry dominates. However symphonic, instrumental and chamber music are not ignored and in the venues here there are ballet performances and church music as well as promenade concerts and other genres. Every year at the festival practically all the top Czech interpreters perform, the three national theatres, all the significant orchestras and choirs and the best conductors, soloists and instrumentalists. And even though there are many significant foreign guests (among others Katia Ricciarelli, Sherill Milnes, Bernd Weikl, Kurt Rydl, Sergej Larin, Neil Shicoff, Torsten Kerl, Sumi Jo, Kate Royal, Marcello Giordani, Thomas Hampson, Oksana Dyka ...) Smetana’s Litomyšl has retained its Czech character and so is truly a national festival.

The centre of the festival is the wonderful Litomyšl State Castle, which in 1999 was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List. The main events are held mostly in the acoustically excellently prepared second courtyard with its unique retractable roof, as well as in the castle riding hall, in Litomyšl’s churches, in the Smetana Hall and regularly in selected places in the Pardubice region.

A visit to Smetana’s Litomyšl is no ordinary occasion, as aside from the interesting dramaturgy and the brilliant performances it offers a chance to stay away from the metropolitan hustle and bustle in a place with its own unique spirit.

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