Czech Dreams 2024
News
Thanks to our crew, who were on site, we can at least get a taste of the great atmosphere from Friday's opening of Czech Dreams 2024 at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark, built on the shores of the Øresund Strait. In it, you'll also meet Czech Dreams programming director Ales Březina and Lars Fenger, artistic director of the Louisiana concert series. more
The opening of the 5th edition of Czech Dreams will take place on Friday, January 12, 2024 at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Humlebæk, Denmark. The Pavel Haas Quartet members, Veronika and Peter Jarůšek, and pianist Boris Giltburg will perform Smetana's Piano Trio in G minor that they have staged especially for Czech Dreams 2024. more
We are very pleased to announce that Magdalena Kožená and Sir Simon Rattle have taken joint patronage of the 5th edition of Czech Dreams. more
The fifth year of the pan-European project Czech Dreams will be dedicated to the presentation of Czech chamber music, both through outstanding performers and inspiring dramaturgy, which is an important contribution to the celebration of the 200th anniversary of the birth of Bedřich Smetana. more
Czech Dreams 2014 culminated yesterday by a swing whirlwind in St. Pölten, Lower Austria. Before the thrilling performance by Ondřej Havelka and his Melody Makers started, a memorandum of cooperation between Barockfestival St. Pölten and Concentus Moraviae Festival was signed opening the door for more effective cultural and social cooperation in the future. Jan Sechter, ambassador of the Czech Republic in Austria and Matthias Stadler, mayor of St. Pölten participated in the ceremonail closing of Czech Dreams. more
The Czech ambassador to Austria Jan Sechter and the Mayor of the host city St. Pölten Matthias Stadler will welcome on Monday 8 December the audience at the gala closing concert of this year's Czech Dreams, performed by Ondřej Havelka and his Melody Makers. In the framework of this extraordinary evening a memorandum on cooperation between the Barockfestival St. Pölten and the Concentus Moraviae Festival will be signed. more
Two concerts of the Zemlinsky Quartet will sound within the Czech Dreams in Great Britain. This excellent string ensemble will celebrate 20 years of successful activities also by a debut performance at the iconic MALVERN CONCERT CLUB on 27 November, which was founded by Sir Edward Elgar in the Worcestershire county in 1903. more
His Excellency Karel Borůvka, Ambassador of the Czech Republic to the Swiss Confederation and to the Principality of Liechtenstein, opened personally the Czech Dreams in Biel on 30 October. After the four day long program he addressed us with his reflection that we like to share with you: “Czech Dreams in Biel were successful and I would like to thank once more for the invitation. The whole project contributed very effectively to the promotion of Czech culture. I am aware of the fact that arrangement of such an event requires enormous commitment of organisation, time and of course finances. If you negotiate with sponsors on possible another edition of Czech Dreams in Switzerland in the future, you have my full support and recommendation. Czech Dreams have contributed essentionally to spreading awareness and good reputation of the Czech Republic and I wish them a lot of success and if possible also long-term continuation!” more
Premiere of the chamber version of Rusalka by Antonín Dvořák at the Theatre Orchestra Biel Solothurn, concert of the artist in residence Josef Špaček in accompaniment of pianist Miroslav Sekera, Antonín Stehlík cimbalom group performing at the railway station, vegetable market and also at the town theatre and pizzeria Napule é. On colourful Saturady 1 November at the Congress Centre. Look back in pictures by Jiří Sláma! more
On Wednesday 5 November the Czech Dreams return to Poland for the fifth time in this year, and this time exceptionally to the capital city. Patron of the Czech Dreams, the mezzo-soprano Magdalena Kožená will perform at the concert hall of the Warsaw Philharmonic together with La Cetra Ensemble from Basel. The concert will be conducted by the regular collaborator of Magdalena, the Italian conductor Andrea Marcon with whom she has appeared at world stages and in various recording projects. The program consists of arias By Claudio Monteverdi and includes also instrumental works composed in 17th century by Italians Marco Uccellini, Dario Castelo, Tarquinio Merula and Biagio Marini. more
On Friday 31 October a chamber version of Dvořák´s opera Rusalka by was premiered at the City Theatre in Biel. The Slovak composer Marián Lejava is author of the version which was staged by Daniel Pfluger and conducted by Kaspar Zehnder. The audiences of the first night performance rose to frenetic ovations. more
In one week one of the most important international events of the Year of Czech music will be opened in Switzerland: the Czech Dreams in Biel. The extraordinary broad celebration of Czech culture will be organised at concert, exhibition and screening venues of the Swiss city of Biel from Thursday 30 October to Sunday 2 November 2014. A joint project of the Czech Dreams 2014 and the Theater Orchester Biel Solothurn is presenting a rich program of music accompanied by a variety of non-musical presentations. CzechTourism is a partenr of the event. more
On 11 october the Czech organist Peter Rajnoha will give a recital at the Church of St. Quentin in the town Allouville-Bellefosse, situated in Upper Normandy. Her Excellency Ms. Marie Chatardová, patroness of Czech Dreams concerts in France, will also attend the concert. more
Violinist Josef Špaček, who was appointed the residential artist of this year´s Czech Dreams project, will perform together with pianist Miroslav Sekera in Wallonian Hervé on Thursday 9 October in a dynamic and original multi-genre festival titled A week without screen. more
Epoque String Quartet will make its debut in Serbia this week. Thanks to the performance of four musicians engaged next to classical repertoire for string quartet also in genres like jazz, rock and funk, the Czech Dreams will exceptionally will visit also a capital city: in Belgrade the Epoques Quartet will perform the closing concert of the ArtLink Festival more
The well-known Italian MITO SettembreMusica Festival commemorateed the anniversary of Leoš Janáček in this year and invited a number of interesting Czech musicians to perform his works at venues in Milano and Torino. Ivo Kahánek performed Janáček´s piano pieces in his recitals at the Piccolo Regio Giacomo Puccini in Torino on 17 September and at the Teatro Out Off in Milano one day later. more
In 2004, Modra stood together with its twin town Hustopeče at the origin of our project. Together with the Belgian Izegem and Swiss Murten Modra is one of three towns that have so far participated in all three years of Czech Dreams in 2004, 2007 and 2011. Thanks to this reliable partnership Modra will host so-called weekend of Czech Dream from 12 to 14 September 2014 which will belong to five most important events of the fourth year of Czech Dreams. more
On Thursday 14 August PKF-Prague Philharmonia performed at the "German Church" in Murten, Switzerland, under the baton of Kaspar Zehnder, former chief conductor of the PKF and artistic director of the Murten Classics Festival. This year´s festival program was titled "Once upon a time ..." more
Concert of Josef Špaček, the residential artist of Czech dreams, took place within the jubilee 20th year of the festival Musiques dans les Vignes in the church of Cairanne, the wine town of South France on Friday 25 July at 21:30. more
On Friday July 18 the residential artist of Czech Dreams Josef Špaček gave a concert at the Blue Hall of the Karol Szymanowski Philharmonic in Cracow, accompanied by the pianist Miroslav Sekera. more
The traditional partner festival of Czech Dreams Varna Summer hosted this year two festive concerts of our project. In the inspiring environment of the newly established concert hall of the City Gallery the residential artist of Czech Dreams Josef Špaček performed with a great success with the Graffe String Quartet on July 4 and one day later Ardašev Piano Duo was introduced at the same venue. more
On Thursday July 3rd the foreign part of the Czech Dreams. project was opened at the Marianum Hall in Trnava. The violinist Josef Špaček, Artist in Residence of the Czech Dreams 2014, performed together with the Janáček Chamber Orchestra on this occasion. The enthusiastic audience, consisting mainly of leading personalities of the musical life of the Czech and the Slovak Republics, rewarded the performance with a frenetic applause more
The Czech mezzo-soprano Magdalena Kožená, patron of the Czech Dreams project, appeared at the Rudolfinum in Prague together with the Basel ensemble La Cetra and conductor Andrea Marcon on Sunday 30 March. As part of this event our project was introduced at the vestibule of the Rudolfinum. more
Representatives of the Czech Dreams, Zdenka Kachlová and David Dittrich, met officials of the Slovak city Trnava for the second time to discuss details of the ceremonial opening concert of the foreign part of the 4th year of the Czech Dreams 2014 which will be held on 3 July 2014 at the Trnava concert hall Marianum. more
4th year of the project Czech Dreams will start at the multifunctional GONG hall in Ostrava on 22 May. The fact that the concert will be simultaneously be the opening concert of the 39th International Music Festival Janáček May, declares a new partnership between the project Czech Dreams and an important domestic music festival. more
Magdalena Kožená, the patron of our project, performed with a great succsess at the Rudolfinum in Prague on Sunday 3 November. The Czech Dreams 2014 were presented at the concert for the first time. In auditorium, also the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic Jan Kohout applauded Magdalena Kožená together with partners and supporters of the project as well as a numer of musicians who will participace in the Czech Dreams. more
Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic Jan Kohout granted auspices to the Czech Dreams 2014 project on 1 November 2013. In previous three editions of the Czech Dreams the cooperation with the MFA was exceptionally fruitful, individual ambassadors of the Czech Republic in the participating countries contributed fundamentally to the success of the project. We have also had an excellent experience with a number of honorary consuls of our republic. We therefore sincerely appreciate the opportunity to continue this partnership and to prepare the next year of the Czech Dream in a similar synergy, this time as part of celebration of the Year of Czech Music. more
First weekend of the Czech Dreams will take place in Saxony
On Wednesday 16 October 2013, a meeting of councilors of Bystřice nad Pernštejnem, representatives of the Czech Dreams project and representatives of the longtime Bystřice´s partner town Crimmitschau was held at the Town Hall of Bystřice nad Pernštejnem. Next year, the Saxon town Crimmitschau will celebrate 600 years since its founding and the Czech Dreams will be part of the grand town celebrations. “Czech Dreams Weekend” will be organised from 30 May till 1 June 2014 and the event will cumlinate by a concert of Ondřej Havelka and His Melody Makers.