Czech Dreams 2011
Press release, 1st July 2011

The 3rd year of the international cultural project dedicated to the promotion of Czech music
28/5 – 3/12/2011

Top Czech musicians will roam around Europe

Tomorrow, on Saturday 2nd July 2011, the international section of the 3rd year of the Czech Dreams 2011 project will open with a gala concert in Adorf, Germany.
The Brno Philharmonia will perform in front of the auditorium of the evangelical church of St. Michael under the baton of the internationally renowned conductor Tomáš Netopil. The orchestra will be partnered at this concert will be one of the most sought after professional choirs in Europe, the Czech Philharmonic Choir Brno, led by choirmaster Petr Fiala with the sopranos Hana Škarková and Adriana Kohútková and the legendary bass Richard Novák.
The concert will include three attractively combined spiritual works. Franz Schubert’s captivating Salve Regina offertorium will be followed by Zdeněk Fibich’s seldom heard Missa brevis and the evening will be concluded with Dvořák’s famous Te Deum.

The Czech section of the 2011 Czech Dreams project, the Concentus Moraviae International Music Festival of 13 Towns, began on 28th May and the relay baton will be handed abroad at the concert in Adorf, Saxony on Saturday 2nd July. The cream of the Czech performance scene will perform in 19 European countries at hundreds of concerts in 70 towns and cities in Aleš Březina’s inspiring dramaturgy.

The performers of the 2011 Czech Dreams

The following excellent performers will take part in this year’s Czech Dreams:

Voice: Iva Bittová Magdalena Kožená, Zuzana Lapčíková, Hana Škarková, Adriana Kohútková and Richard Novák / Violin: Martina Bačová, Ondřej Lébr, Jan Mráček, Roman Patočka and Adéla Štajnochrová / Viola: Petr Verner / Violoncello: Jiří Bárta, Hana Fleková and Tomáš Jamník / Harp: Kateřina Englichová and Jana Boušková / Flute: Clara Nováková / Oboe: Vilém Veverka and Vladislav Borovka / Clarinet: Irvin Venyš / Basoon: Václav Vonášek and Ondřej Roskovec / French horn: Radek Baborák / Trumpet: Eric Vloeimans / Piano: Renáta and Igor Ardašev, Martin Kasík, Ivo Kahánek, Lukáš Klánský, Karel Košárek and Slávka Pěchočová / Harpsichord and forte piano: Monika Knoblochová / Organ: Bert van den Brink, Wacław Golonka, Kateřina Chroboková and Markéta Schley Reindlová / Conductors: Václav Luks, Tomáš Netopil and Kaspar Zehnder / Choirmasters: Petr Fiala, Václav Luks, Marek Štryncl and Lukáš Vasilek / Ensembles: the Brno Philharmonia, the Prague Philharmonia, Collegium 1704 and Collegium vocale 1704, the Czech Philharmonic Choir Brno, Boni pueri, Martinů Voices, the Smetana Trio, Trio Prisma, the Afflatus Quintet, the Merel Quartet, the Pavel Haas Quartet, the Epoque Quartet, the Zemlinský Quartet, Barocco sempre giovane, the Radek Baborák ensemble, the Zuzana Lapčíková Quintet, Čikori, Clarinet Factory, Bardolino and Ondřej Havelka and his Melody Makers / Dance: Lenka Bartůňková, Dagmar Chaloupková and Lotte Nouwkens / Multimedia accompaniments for concerts: David Vrbík and Petr Nikl / Tomorrow It Will … prepared by Soňa Červená, Jan Mikušek and the other performers in the production of the National Theatre in Prague

The 2011 Czech Dreams venues

From British Preston in Western Europe to Lithuanian Kaunas in the east,
from Swedish Uppsala in the north to Greek Paxos in the south: all these venues will welcome the 2011 Czech Dreams project and will present the cream of Czech performing talent.

The top concerts in this year’s project will include:
2. 7. Adorf (Germany) Michaeliskirche, from 6:00 pm
The Brno Philharmonia, the Czech Philharmonic Choir Brno, Tomáš Netopil – conductor, Petr Fiala – choirmaster, Adriana Kohútková – soprano, Hana Škarková – soprano, Richard Novák - bass
24. 8. Méslay-du-Maine (France), Eglisé de Méslay-du-Maine, from 9:00 pm
Collegium 1704, Collegium Vocale 1704, Václav Luks – conductor
4. 9. Murten (Switzerland) the Murten Château, from 5:00 pm
Magdalena Kožená, the Pavel Haas Quartet, Kaspar Zehnder – artistic director, chamber orchestra and soloists
7. - 9. 10. Izegem (Belgium) the Czech Weekend
Clarinet Factory, Ondřej Havelka & his Melody Makers, the Ardašev Duo
12. 11. Banská Bystrica (Slovakia)
The Drama Company from the Prague National Theatre, Tomorrow It Will …, soloists: Soňa Červená and Jan Mikušek
Canti di Praga, the PurPur instrumental ensemble, the Kühn Children’s Choir
3. 12. Wrocław (Poland), the Congress Centre
Ondřej Havelka & his Melody Makers

The representatives of the following European towns and cities have promised their participation in the international section of the 2011 Czech Dreams projects:

Izegem and Gent (Belgium), Århus (Denmark), Méslay-du-Maine, Cairanne, Yvetot, Mellionec, Allouville–Bellefosse and Auch (France), Como, Cotignola and Turin (Italy), Kaunas (Lithuania), Luxemburg (Luxemburg), Pécs, Visegrád, Budapest and Miskolc (Hungary), Konstanz, Dresden, Höchstädt im Fichtegebirge, Adorf, Crimmitschau, Magdeburg, Aschheim and Ströbeck (Germany), Utrecht (the Netherlands), Łodź, Chorzów, Kraków, Imielin, Mikołów, Wrocław, Gdaňsk, Štětín, Bydgošť and Rawa Mazowiecka (Poland), Salzburg, Hollabrunn, Pulkau and Eggenburg (Austria), Sibiu (Romania), Paxos (Greece), Banská Bystrica, Banská Štiavnica, Bratislava, Kežmarok, Nitra, Poprad, Prešov, Trenčín, Žilina, Zvolen, Modra, Košice, Galanta and Trnava (Slovakia), Ljubljana (Slovenia), Valencia (Spain), Goteborg and Uppsala (Sweden), Murten (Switzerland), London and Preston (Great Britain).

Around 80 local dailies and magazines, 35 regional and national television stations and almost 50 radio stations in the participating countries have contributed to the promotion of the project.

The goal of the project

The presentation of the Czech Republic within Europe
Strengthening cultural cooperation in the Visegrad countries
Supporting cultural projects in the European regions
Support for partnerships between European cities and regions

A description of the project

The third year of the Czech Dreams cultural project is focussed on cultural cooperation between European cities and regions and the promotion of top Czech performers and musicians who are closely associated with the Czech Republic.
Thanks to this project, the Czech Republic will be presented in the form of an attractive and widely inspirational cultural project. “Czech Weekends” will be held in some towns and cities in the selected countries and they will present a truly varied pallet of Czech artistry, not only in the area of music.
The project will contribute to the resolution of the current problem area of the cultural development of the European regions by initiating a number of regional cases of cooperation in the area of culture within the framework of the European Union.
The strengthening and enrichment of existing partnerships between European cities and regions and the establishment of new cases of inspiring cooperation are further ambitions of the project.
The project’s significant contribution involves the presentation of top performers (both Czech and those closely associated with the Czech Republic) abroad and support for new concert opportunities for top young Czech performers.

As in the previous years of the project, the “Czech Dreams in Germany” section of the project will also be important this year. As Germany is a traditionally active cultural partner of the Czech Republic, the Czech Dream concerts held in the municipalities and towns of our western neighbour always influence the course and tone of the entire project to an exceptional extent. This year, Adorf in Saxony will be the venue for the official opening of Czech Dreams 2011; the Brno Philharmonia and the Czech Philharmonic Choir Brno will perform there under the baton of Tomáš Netopil on 2nd July 2011 within the framework of the Mitte Europa partner festival.
The aforementioned activities will be subjected to special attention in the Visegrad countries by means of the “Visegrad Dreams” subproject; the further efforts of the project within the framework of the EU therefore also include contributing to the exceptionally strong and functional cultural ties between the Visegrád countries. The closing gala concert will therefore take place on 3rd December 2011 at the Congress Centre in Wroclaw, Poland which has been entered in the UNESCO register of heritage sites. A number of representatives of the European cities and regions participating in the Czech Dreams project will meet on this occasion.
Two of the concert programs from the dramaturgy of Czech Dreams 2011 will also be recorded on CD. A recording will be made of Magdalena Kožená’s exceptional chamber project involving music by French, Italian and Spanish authors supplemented by the works of Leoš Janáček. Concerts by this singing star and an international chamber ensemble consisting of top solo players will take place within the framework of the Czech Dreams in, for example, Brno in Moravia and Murten in Switzerland. The second CD will involve music of a different genre: the Zuzana Lapčíková Quintet brings together musicians who have long been active on jazz stages and are among the top players of their generation. The quintet plays a repertoire which is based on the inspiration of Moravian folk music tinged with the approaches of contemporary and jazz music. The strong individual performances of the musicians who also communicate together exceptionally as a unit are fundamental to the overall effect. The Zuzana Lapčíková Quintet will perform in Tišnov, Velké Meziříčí, Banská Štiavnica, Modra, in Höchstädt, Germany and in Polish Imielin within the framework of Czech Dreams 2011.

A word from the dramaturg
Impressions and memories. Czech Dreams 2011

The first Czech Dreams project held in 2004 was intended as a one-off international venture of the Concentus Moraviae Festival associated with the significant anniversaries of a number of composers from the Czech lands and also with the accession of the Czech Republic into the European Union. The project’s focal point was the repertoire and it resolved “to discover early works in dusty archives or new works in the drawers of living authors.” The large international response was the inspiration for holding the second year of the project in 2007, which reflected the stagnation of the Czech performance tradition as a consequence of the many years of isolation of Czech musicians from the events taking place in the world and the difficulties of these musicians in breaking into the international scene and it therefore focussed on bringing Czech performers together with their best international contemporaries.
The focus of Czech Dreams 2011 involves Czechs and other musicians, who are active in the Czech Republic, and their musical dreams. What was their motivation for choosing their specific instrument and for devoting themselves to music as their life’s vocation? What guided their first conscious meeting with the music which has been dominant in their careers? Which of those emotions is still part of their artistic profile after many years and social transformations?
The earliest musical memory of the dramaturg of Czech Dreams 2011 is a radio broadcast of Trojan’s Slavík performed by Ivan Kawaciuk. His immediate reaction was to choose the violin as his instrument, but perhaps even more interesting is the fact that many years later he also eventually started to compose film music. His inclination towards film music waited decades for its opportunity and asserted itself as soon as it surfaced. Czech Dreams 2011 will endeavour to find similar connections and to present them using the best Czech artists of the current period.
Connections with the previous two years of the project will be apparent on the one hand with the return to some works which were commissioned for Czech Dreams 2004 and 2007 and on the other hand with several newly commissioned works by Czech authors. As well as this, some of the extensive projects from the previous years will continue, of which the most substantial will involve the presentation of the third part of Jan Dismas Zelenka’s Responsoria, the first two parts of which were prepared during Czech Dreams 2004 and 2007.
As in the case of the previous two years of the project, Czech Dreams 2011 mainly hopes to ensure that its audience members leave each individual concert with a feeling of having had an exceptional experience from listening to beautiful music performed excellently.
Aleš Březina, the dramaturg

Project partners
The Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic
The South Moravian Region
The embassies and general and honorary consulates in the participating countries
The Czech Centres in the participating countries
The Czech-German Fund for the Future

Project authors
Dramaturg: Aleš Březina
Project Director: David Dittrich
Authors of the project’s graphic design: Aleš Najbrt, Radek Veselý, Martin Svoboda
Head Project Manager: Eva Dittrichová
Project Manager: Zdenka Kachlová
Project production: Simona Hopfingerová, Jan Mach, Jitka Miková, Anna Bednářová, Pavel Šindelář, Ľubica Maťasová
Fundraising: Kateřina Kepáková

Contact information:
Eva Dittrichová, eva@ceskesny.cz , mob. 736 605 933
Zdenka Kachlová, zdenka.kachlova@ceskesny.cz, mob. 734 728 752
Aleš Březina, ales@ceskesny.cz , mob. 606 623 806
David Dittrich, david@ceskesny.cz , mob. 603 843 534

Correspondence address:
Mezinárodní centrum slovanské hudby Brno, o. p. s.
České sny 2011
Polní 6
639 00 Brno

Website:
www.ceskesny.cz