The International Folklore Festival in Písek was founded by Milan Bečka, MD. Thanks to his enthusiasm and also to the energy of the forty members of our Písečan Group the event became one of the greatest folklore events in the Czech Republic. Every summer Písek becomes a place of this extraordinary cultural experience.
Groups from abroad and from all parts of the Czech Republic perform on stage and also in the streets. Spectators can meet with various cultures, folklore dances, customs and arts. Every year the organizers come up with novelties to improve the festival. The spectators from Písek grew fond of the International Folklore Festival and more than 3,000 come every year to watch.
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.
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.
The St. Wenceslas Music Festival (SHF) is the largest international festival of sacred and so-called early music in the Czech Republic. Since its inception in 2004, SHF has been held annually not only in Ostrava, but also in many churches throughout the Moravian-Silesian Region during the month of September (the first 10 years took place between two public holidays, September 28 - October 28). Traditionally, more than thirty concerts are celebrated by the feast of St. Wenceslas, representing the symbol of Czech statehood.
The main goal of SHF is the presentation of the so-called informed interpretation of early and sacred music in sacred spaces, in an effort to restore this music to its original meaning. High quality festival dramaturgy of the director of SHF doc. Mgr. Igor Františák, Ph.D. is guided by three main lines: monumental vocal-instrumental concerts, programs focused on the so-called authentic interpretation of early music and chamber and solo projects, which are annually supplemented by non-traditional and crossover projects. SHF systematically supports the talents of the young generation, presents the winners of prestigious competitions, modern premieres and unique projects (crossover projects, ballet, video art or film in the church). He also patriotistly takes care of the genius loci by presenting concerts by Moravian-Silesian natives of European artistic parameters and works by forgotten composers who have lived and created in the region since the Baroque period. The prestigious SHF residential ensembles are Collegium 1704, Collegium Marianum, Czech Philharmonic Choir Brno.
