The International Music Festival Concentus Moraviae is a unique curatorial concept of program preparation. It is primarily focused on classical music with an overlap with other genres and with a strong accent on early music, to which is the biennial dedicated. Every year the organizers address a new dramaturge with a strong program vision, so the festival always focuses on a new topic and is highly appreciated for its contribution to the field. The theme of each year reflects important musical anniversaries as well as current music and social trends. Not only significant personalities of Czech musical life (Barbara Maria Willi, Jiří Beneš, Aleš Březina, Václav Luks, Zdeněk Cupák, etc.), but also foreign musicologists (Jelle Dierickx, Walter Labhart, Tully Potter, Andrea Marcon, Markku Luolajan-Mikkola, Pierre Pitzl, Carine Moretton, etc.).
The International Music Festival Dobršská Brána will again offer a refreshing insight into the world of contemporary music without dramaturgical compromises and a formal genre classification of performers. In their work they present, they freely switch between genres and combine elements of folk music with jazz and chamber music. This corresponds to the specific dramaturgy of the festival and its motto “The Gate to the World of Music”.
The festival continues and fits into the global trend of seraching for new connections between traditional, classical and contemporary music and thus creates a unique musical event that would hardly find a comparison on the Czech music scene. At the same time, the festival gives a new impulse for meeting of world musicians and the Czech audience on the spot for many visitors unusual, yet with a long musical tradition, outside the Czech metropolis. The success of the past year is supported by musical responses from the audience and critics’ reviews by proving that the focus of the festival has been a step in the right direction. During the two-day period, the second year presented performers from Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands, Japan, USA, Germany, Austria, Poland and the Czech Republic. So the event took place with a truly European overlap.
The Petr Dvorský Music Festival focuses mainly on the human voice. In many genres, from classics of all periods to pop, jazz and folklore, top Czech and foreign artists present themselves at it. In addition to its patron Petr Dvorský, the festival hosted, for example, Jelena Obrazcová, Kiri Te Kanawa, Montserrat Caballé, Karel Gott, Lucia Bílá, Mira Žbirka and Ewa Farná.
The Znojmo Music Festival brings its audience a wide range of musical styles and types, connects the seemingly incompatible and breaks down the boundaries between genres. However, the unifying element and goal of the entire festival is to achieve the maximum possible quality and authenticity in all concerts and productions. The axis of the festival is the staging and performance of opera or ballet works in several reruns. Each year is characterized by a tight dramaturgy. All concerts and other accompanying events are held in a unified spirit.
The Janáček Brno festival ranks among the most important events in the European cultural calendar. It is devoted to the artistic legacy of one the greatest Czech composers, Leoš Janáček, and comprehensively presents his life’s work in an international context.
In the 30 years of its existence, the festival has become one of the three largest classical festivals in the Czech Republic, offering 550 concerts and performances, during which more than 13,000 artists from 40 countries performed.
This summer show offers 4 weeks of music from the 15th to the 21st century with international classical / crossover stars in unique places in the city with a real genius loci.
A traditional open-air music festival, which annually brings unforgettable musical evenings in the large castle courtyard to the inhabitants and visitors of Brno. In addition to large symphonic works, it also offers connections with other genres under the summer sky, and thus tries to make classical music accessible to those who might not otherwise get to it.
The Moravian Autumn Festival is one of the most important cultural events in the Czech Republic. It was established as the Brno International Music Festival in 1966, when the activities of Brno's artistic institutions took on an international dimension again after years of rigid isolation, and the first year of the festival had a very positive response.
In 1987, a multi-day festival of contemporary music called Exposition of New Music was established under the auspices of the MHFB, and since 1995 it has been expanding with the Easter Festival of Sacred Music.
Moravian Autumn invites to Brno orchestras that have passed Europe so far, chamber ensembles belonging to the world's top, soloists decorating world stages. It is not only an interpretive festival that tries to bring the world's top to Brno and confront it with domestic first-class musicians, but also a program one; it's not just "about the stars" (and their competition at all), but also about the content.
We see the great contribution of the Moravian Autumn in the search for new and interesting dramaturgical lines, addressing living authors and the creation of new works. The festival also draws attention to young and talented performers, giving them the opportunity to excel. In 2015, Erkki-Sven Tüür, who, together with Arvo Pärt and Veljo Tormis, is one of the most important contemporary Estonian composers, was revived.
Moravian Autumn is a member of the Czech Association of Festivals (CAF) and is held once every two years (biennial).
The organizer is the Brno Philharmonic, a contributory organization of the statutory city of Brno.
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.
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.
