# city of A NEW MUSIC GUIDE FROM BRNO, A UNESCO CREATIVE CITY OF MUSIC

CLASSICAL MUSIC OPERETTA, MUSICAL JAZZ FOLKLORE “TRAMP” MUSIC, MODERN FOLK. COUNTRY ROCK, METAL, POP UNDERGROUND, ALTERNATIVE, PUNK ELECTRONIC MUSIC

In 2017, Brno was awarded the prestigious title of UNESCO Creative City of Music, thus joining a network of 46 cities viewing music as one of their development priorities.

Follow www.mestohudby.cz for the latest information on activities in the city of music.

BRNO – 3× UNESCO

BRNO ↓ LEOŠ JANÁČEK ARCHIVES ↓ VILLA TUGENDHAT ↓ UNESCO Creative City of Music UNESCO Memory UNESCO World Heritage List of the World Register #Brno city of music

To write a guide to music in BRNO Of fundamental importance for Brno A basic feature of life in BRNO is the in the past and present means dig- is its proximity to important folklore way in which musicians and musical ging deep into one’s own recollec- regions, which are an endless source genres are interconnected through tions and those of others as well as of fresh, creative blood. On the other innumerable networks, something into sources with varying degrees hand, however, people often leave that long predates the age of the of reliability, and as far as possible Brno for larger centres - in the past Internet. When Brno became a mem- not believing anything automatical- mostly for , but increasingly ber of the UNESCO Creative Cities ly but always asking “Did this really in the past thirty years for the whole Network in the field of music in happen just like that?” And in doing outside world. This is perhaps one 2017, it was simply a further logical so, to be very, very suspicious of of the reasons why the standard step in its long development. At the one’s own memory. musical genre in Brno is alterna- moment Brno is in the first stages of tive; genuine pop has always had preparing a bid to be named a Euro- Two basic questions that cropped a minimal presence here. With fewer pean City of Culture in 2028. up in connection with almost every than 400,000 inhabitants, Brno isn’t sentence were “What is it about In writing the individual chapters of really a very big city, though it’s big this band or that event that makes this guide, a multitude of facts had enough to be the ’s them special? Would someone to be sacrificed on the altar of brev- second largest. Basically all the who’s never been to Brno and ity. The aim was to offer a general musicians in Brno know what all the has no ties with the city find it and personal view rather than an other musicians are doing. interesting?” exhaustive list. For the preparation BRNO is the unofficial metropolis of of this brochure, even the smallest At times Brno’s obsession with . It boasts a massive con- bits of information and advice were Janáček, whom it promotes as one centration of universities, theatres, always welcome: my thanks go to of the few figures of world stature clubs and all sorts of spaces suit- on-line sources and to individuals who lived here for a considerable able for playing music. There’s per- both living and dead, from nearby length of time, really does go too far. haps an even greater concentration and afar, people known personally But it’s thanks to a biennial festival of people who want to play, and to me and strangers: Jura Cancák devoted to his that ninety this is quite logical. Brno has more (trampsky-magazin.cz), Zdeněk years after his death the city has than twenty basic schools of the Černý, the Czech Theatre Encyclo- moved into the musical big league: in arts, a conservatory, the Janáček pedia, Jan Dalecký, David Dittrich, April 2019 Brno was presented with Academy of the Performing Arts, Martin Dohnal, encyklopedie.brna.cz, a prestigious International Opera and a Department of Musicology at Petr Gratias, L. P. Fish, Dušan Holý, Award in the Sadler's Wells Theatre in Masaryk University. A huge number folklornet.cz, Kateřina Hnátová, kftp. London. Earlier, in 2017, the Moravi- of people with a musical educa- cz, Vladimír Maňas, Ivo Medek, Jan an Autumn Festival staged a meg- tion are to be found in a fairly Němeček, Jiří Plocek, Jan Pohunek, aproduction of Arseny Avraamov’s small area. And it’s impossible to Irena Přibylová, Don Sparling, Milan The Symphony of Sirens, whose count the number of amateurs who Tesař, trampnet.sk, and myown- recording on the occasion was participate enthusiastically in all memory.bk. All helped to make the commissioned by Bavarian Radio, genres, from choir singers through guide what it is. which offers it to listeners on-line. So musicians in symphony orchestras Brno’s musical activities are far from For any shortcomings in the guide, to rockers and singer-songwriters. local in their impact. the responsibility is mine. Boris Klepal #symphony of the city

CLASSICAL MUSIC Cultivated music, art music, serious music … shifting from one of these messy labels to another usually has one aim: to avoid the problematic “classical music”. Today this misleading term covers everything that was heard in medieval churches, in the course of Baroque festivities, in the age of bourgeois revolutions and at experimental con- certs that saw shoes being thrown at the performers. Brno happily recalls visits here by , Franz Liszt and Bedřich Smetana, short as they were. But it also remembers the Hollywood film music celebrity , who spent his earliest years in Brno. Brno might appear to be a city of brief sojourns, were it not for Leoš Janáček, who made it his home and in the course of the past forty years has become one of the world’s most frequently performed . But the musical history of the city mirrored the turbulent political changes in the nineteenth century and drew on the enormous energy released by the creation of a free in 1918: never since then has its progressive character vanished completely. #symphony of the city HOUSES OF (MUSICAL) One of the greatest musicians of It was musicians from St James’s PRAYER the day, Alessandro Striggio, was Church who formed the core of the enticed to Brno by the Habsburg orchestra that accompanied the For hundreds of years the city’s emperor Maximilian II, who was eleven-year-old Wolfgang Amadeus skyline has been dominated by the attending a session of the Moravi- Mozart when he performed here in Cathedral of SS Peter and Paul, an Estates here. Striggio wished 1767. His concert is commemorat- situated on a hill overlooking the to present the emperor with his ed by a statue by Kurt Gebauer in city, and the Church of St James at forty-voice mass Ecco si beati front of the , where its very heart. These two churches giorno. A second great Renaissance the young Mozart appeared. housed schools where young boys was present in Brno as Without Reduta, the subsequent were also trained in singing. Another a member of Maximilian’s retinue musical life of Brno would have been important musical centre was the - Jacob Handl Gallus. Many works unthinkable. It was the site of the Basilica of the Assumption of Our found in the archives of the city’s first opera performances in Brno but Lady in Mendel Square. This was churches can be heard in Brno also a suitable space for concerts. founded in 1323 by Queen Eliza- today as part of the annual Easter Much later, operetta found a home beth Richeza, quite unaware that Festival of Sacred Music. many centuries later Brno’s greatest here, and chamber concerts and operas have continued to take musical figure,Leoš Janáček, would begin his musical career here. FROM BAROQUE ORGAN TO place here down to the present. But THE TWENTIETH CENTURY of course the hall is too small for Liturgical singing is not what we concerts by today’s first-rate musi- today term “musical life”, and has Even after the arrival of the Ba- cians: the size of the public and its nothing in common whatsoever roque in Brno, the local churches diversity have multiplied exponen- with concerts as such. Never- remained the city’s musical centres. tially since the eighteenth century. theless, musical activity in those By this time the Jesuits were While not even the Janáček Theatre, long-gone days often anticipated established here, and in 1743 they which can seat more than one thou- social development. Paintings by had the city’s second organ in- sand spectators, could answer the leading medieval and Renaissance stalled in their church; it remained demand for tickets to a concert by artists were probably not to be there until destroyed by bombs in Valery Gergiev and the London Sym- phony Orchestra in 2013, the much smaller Reduta was large enough for a charity concert by Franz Liszt and the appearances of Clara Schu- mann and of Johannes Brahms with the violinist Joseph Joachim. But far more important than visits by outstanding musicians was the city’s everyday musical life, which took on enormous momentum after 1860, when it became possible to establish associations: this was an important stimulus to the emergence of what we now term civil society.

SOCIAL GATHERINGS, ASSOCIATIONS AND THE STRUGGLE BETWEEN Schola Gregoriana Pragensis´ Holy Week Meditations at the Easter Festival of Sacred Music. NATIONALITIES Photo: Brno Philharmonic At the time, Brno was run by its seen in Brno’s churches, but music 1944. Today the city’s most modern German-speaking citizens, but by the very best composers could organ, inaugurated in 2013, with in the years immediately follow- be heard there. We have proof of the cost covered partially by the ing 1860, the Czech- and Ger- this from the Renaissance period. “Opera for Brno” public funding man-speakers were not yet in Worshippers in Brno listened to the campaign, can be heard there. open conflict. This was reflected in Renaissance polyphony of Josquin Of course concerts as such were music. The brilliant pianist Agnes Desprez, though the historical not held in the Jesuit or any other Tyrrell performed in events organ- sources don’t give the names of its churches, but their gradually ized by the newly-established Brno interpreters. But they do indicate emerging musical ensembles pro- Musikverein as well as at Czech that there were already close links vided the nuclei of orchestras that social gatherings. It was only sev- between Brno and . also performed on other occasions. eral decades later that Czech and German musical societies began to move apart, deliberately undercut one another and even “punish” musicians for taking part in events organized by the “competition”. Out of the chamber music tradition there emerged the Neruda family string quartet, the precursor of the much later Moravian Quartet, the Janáček Quartet and many others. One landmark was the establish- ment of Brno Beseda in 1860. Today one of the oldest Czech choirs, it was founded by the composer Pav- el Křížkovský, an Augustinian and the first teacher of Leoš Janáček, who led the Brno Beseda from 1876 to 1884. The Brno Beseda was not

Pavel Křížkovský’s statue in the park beneath Špilberg. Photo: Pocket media/Ivo Dvořák

only a choir, but also a platform for organizing symphony concerts. As conductor, Janácek raised musi- cal life to a high level. He was also behind the creation of an Organ School in 1906; in 1919 it was trans- formed into the Brno Conservatory. Brno Beseda often held concerts in the pavilion for hosting social events in the city park, Lužanky. After 1873 it and many other associ- ations were able to move to the new Czech social and cultural centre Besední dům, housed in a neo-Re- naissance building designed by the architect Theophil von Hansen, later responsible for the Vienna Musikverein. By this point, attending a concert there was a proclamation of one’s Czech identity. The creation of Besední dům served as a stim- ulus for the establishment of the Deutsches Haus as its competitive German counterpart. Besední dům soon became the centre of Czech musical and social life in Brno. It was on the steps of Besední dům that a young worker, František Pavlík, was fatally wound- ed in 1905 in a forcibly suppressed demonstration calling for the establishment in Brno of a second Czech university - an event com- memorated by Janáček in his Sonata I. X. 1905, titled “From the Street”. And it was from the balcony Concert organ in the Church of the of Besední dům that the creation of Assumption of Our Lady. Photo: Pocket media/Ivo Dvořák an independent Czechoslovakia was proclaimed in October 1918. BRNO: MODERN, AT WAR, COMMUNIST … AND MAKING MUSIC Following the end of World War I, Brno began to develop rapidly and to transform itself into a modern, Functionalist city. The conductor František Neumann moved to Brno; his main focus was on opera, but he also programmed symphony concerts and introduced the first subscription series of concerts. The Brno Radio Orchestra, founded by Janáček’s student Břetislav Bakala, followed in Neumann’s footsteps. Thanks to Bakala, the Brno pub- lic was able to enjoy outstanding performances of the classics as well The Brno Philharmonic and its Chief Conductor, Dennis Russel Davies. Photo: Brno Philharmonic as works by contemporary Moravian composers. Bakala continued with greatest composers ever born in talented Brno composer, Vítězslava this consistent promotion of Czech Brno, but unlike his more famous Kaprálová, died in . And long composers even during World War II. brother Hugo, he failed to emigrate before that, another native of Brno, The war sealed the fate of the before the German occupation and Erich Wolfgang Korngold, had left composer Pavel Haas. His natu- was murdered in Auschwitz. At the behind Brno and even . In the ral talents made him one of the beginning of the war, another highly USA he became a leading composer of music for Hollywood films, twice winning an Oscar. Ten years after the end of World War II the radio orchestra and the Brno Region Symphony Orchestra merged to form what is now the Brno Philhar- monic; its first concert took place on 1 January 1956. Indirectly, Bakala’s work influenced the world famous Janáček specialist Charles Mackerras, who conducted frequently in Brno.

The Brno Philharmonic is at the heart of Brno’s musical life, as is the Moravian Autumn festival, now more than fifty years old. Among its legendary events was the Czech premiere of Olivier Messiaen’s Tur- angalîla symphony in 1972 in the Mezzo Magdalena Kožená in the Villa Tugendhat. Photo: International Slavic Music Centre Brno presence of the composer himself.

PROPHET OF OPTIMISM AND Pavel Haas was one of the most THE ANGUISH OF WAR talented composers in the postwar Pavel generation, who rejoiced at the end When visiting the Jewish cemetery of World War I, suffered through the in Brno, few people forget to seek Depression, and experienced the Haas out the grave of the famous Czech horror of the onset of World War II. interwar actor and film star Hugo In the interval between the wars, Haas. Considerably fewer people however, they enjoyed a period standing by his grave remember his when , Germans and Jews older brother Pavel Haas, who, un- mixed together and influenced each like Hugo, failed to flee the country other mutually, in music as in life. before the Nazi occupation. In 1942 he was deported to Terezín; in 1944 he met his end at Auschwitz. PAST AND PRESENT IN the Central European percussion in- ADVANCING STEADILY ON ITS A UNITY OF TIME AND PLACE strument group Dama Dama, found- OWN PATH ed in 1990. The Brno Contemporary The performance of Turangalîly Orchestra under Pavel Šnajdr is now Brno has created such a distinctive confirmed Brno’s reputation as able to offer subscription series of musical world that at times there a city of progressive musical contemporary music. has even been serious talk of the thinking. In recent years the Brno “Brno school of composition”. One Philharmonic has continued this The Baroque instrument Czech of its essential features is collec- tradition through its festivals and Ensemble Baroque, led by Roman tive composition, the most popu- the programmes for its subscription Válek, focuses on early music, in lar example of which is the 1995 series of concerts. Most recently particular by the Czech Baroque chamber opera The Cage Affair, or this commitment was reflected composer František Xaver Richter. Annals of the Avant-garde Opened The festival is in the selection of Dennis Russell Concentus Moraviae Wide. Three composers were in- also heavily oriented towards early Davies, an outstanding specialist volved in its creation: Alois Piňos, Ivo music; for more than twenty years in contemporary music and an ex- Medek and Miloš Štědroň. perienced interpreter of Beethoven it has hosted outstanding inter- Everything in Brno’s musical life and Bruckner, as its new Chief preters from around the world. The comes together in The Cage Affair. Conductor. The more experimental above-mentioned forty-voice mass One of the characters is Leoš trends in contemporary music are by Alessandro Striggio was part of one of its programmes. A teaching Janáček, who is visited by the reflected in theExposition of New basis for early music exists at JAMU, American avant-garde composer Music and Meetings of New Music where the harpsichord and organ Henry Cowell. Bits of Moravian folk Plus festivals. player Barbara Marie Willi established music pop up. Cowell plays on the Since 1947 the Janáček Academy the Department of Organ and Early piano with a ruler and Janáček’s of the Performing Arts (JAMU) has Music Performance in the Czech dog Čipera gets into the act. The been a fertile hotbed for contempo- Republic in 2014. In a similar fashion, dog’s role is in Baroque opera rary musical thinking. In the Commu- she founded the first subscription style, and was originally written nist era it was a haven for students series of early music concerts under for the mezzo-soprana Magdalena who wanted to be in touch with the witty title BMW presents. Kožená, a native of Brno, where Western trends; for this, an immense debt is owed to the composers and teachers Miloslav Ištvan and Alois Piňos. Both were members of the composers’ group Skupiny A and the discussion club Camerata Brno, whose activities were more or less taken over later by the multigenre Sdružení Q. Skleněná louka is a special case. Under Zdenek Plachý, avant-garde musicians from the whole world met up with each other at this centre, and improvisational evenings and interpretations of graphic scores still take place there today. An exceptional musical phenomenon is Statue of Mozart by Kurt Gebauer in Zelný trh. Photo: Pocket media/Monika Hlaváčová

she also began her career. Čipera Haas was a typical child of his era. Haas’s most popular work is his bites Cowell, who contracts rabies He attended German primary school String Quartet No. 2, titled “From and infects his student John Cage. and Czech secondary school; his the Monkey Mountains”, a piece Cage’s legendary composition music includes typical Jewish driven by the dance rhythms of the 4’33’’ closes the opera. Moravian melodies, but also echoes of the age. His masterpiece is the tragi- folk tunes, Janáček, world-famous twelfth-century St Wenceslas Cho- comic opera The Charlatan (1937). avant-garde figures, and compos- rale. The latter is most noticeably Pavel Haas’s death meant the loss ers and a singer that are the flower present in his Suite for Oboe and of a composer who was undoubt- of Brno’s musical life - all of this Piano, which he wrote in 1939 in edly Leoš Janáček’s most talented together, in an ideal production, the oppressive atmosphere of the student. In 2000 he was named an concentrated in a single place. # beginning of the occupation, and in honorary citizen of Brno. which a fifteenth-century Hussite chorale also appears. #great voices #great voices

OPERA “Every theatre is a madhouse, but opera is the ward for the incurable,” claimed Franz von Dingelstedt, the first director of the Court Opera House in Vienna. And he was right, for once someone’s fallen in love with opera, that’s it. Opera’s a step-child of the Renaissance, with a Baroque wet nurse: it was on the cusp between these two great eras that the idea of purely sung theatre saw the light of day. Step by step, compos- ers taught the art of singing to classical gods and brave women, Christian heroes and pagan enchantresses, a barber, a Babylonian king and the Czech Mařenka and Jeník. But it was only here in Brno, thanks to Leoš Janáček, that truly psychological musical drama was born, drama that sees into a person’s heart. Today the Brno op- era company has its home in a theatre named after Janáček, mounts a major festival devoted to the city’s most famous composer every two years, and has set its sights very high. “The more opera is dead, the more it flourishes,” pronounced the philosopher Slavoj Žižek when speaking of this fanatically loved but just as fanatically rejected genre. By this measure, opera in Brno these days must have been dead at least a dozen times. FROM TAVERN TO THE ONE CITY, GERMAN AND WORLD OF OPERA CZECH OPERA COMPANIES Most projects in and For a long time opera in Brno Moravia begin their life in pubs. On mirrored the relations between its the site of today’s Reduta theatre Czech- and German-speakers. The there once stood the Theater in der first operas in Czech appeared Taffern, and it was there that the around 1840, among them Žižka’s first opera performances in Brno Oak, by the Brno composer František took place. Among the earliest was Kott. The years when Czech operas Domenico Sarro’s Didone abbando- scraped along in the German theatre nata. In 2014 the local Opera on the ended with the establishment of the Move gave a revived premiere of the Czech Provisional National Theatre in work in today’s recently refurbished 1884. This came two years after the Reduta. In the intervening period, opening of the new German Stadt- much had occurred: among other theater, today’s - the things, the Brno opera company first Central European theatre fully lit had acquired a theatre boasting the by electricity. largest stage in the Czech Repub- After the creation of independent lic, named after Leoš Janáček. The company in the interwar period was Czechoslovakia in 1918 the municipal world premieres of all of his operas František Neumann (1874–1929), theatre came into Czech hands, and but one, The Excursions of Mr a workaholic who in addition to the Czech and German companies Brouček, had taken place in Brno. intensive staging of operas by both agreed to alternate there. The most Czech and foreign composers also The outstanding conductor and distinguished head of the opera introduced concert cycles. Janáček specialist Jaroslav Vogel once remarked that Jenůfa is in a minor key. This witty comment also makes the less obvious point that Janáček enjoyed a similar position in Brno to that of Smetana in the country as a whole. But for a long time Janáček was re- garded from outside as a local oddity, until his oeuvre was introduced to the world first byMax Brod and much later by the conductor Charles Mack- erras (1925–2010) and the musicol- ogist John Tyrrell (1942–2018). The former recorded Janáček’s operas for Decca, the latter was the pre-eminent Janáček scholar. The Czech transla- tion of the first volume of his defin- itive biography of Janáček, running to around one thousand large-format pages, was published in 2018 by the A 1977 production of The Bartered Bride. Photo: NDB archives Brno publishing house Host.

ATTAINING EXCELLENCE says the bass Richard Novák when THROUGH CONCERT SINGING speaking of his longtime colleague. Josef “The chorus is the most sensitive By definition, an opera theatre must element – newcomers to the chorus have a chorus. So here we turn are fresh out of the conservatory, Pančík to the superb choir master Josef they don’t know anything, they Pančík, who enjoys the reputation have a bit of a voice, and then they of having created the best opera listen. And they absorb techniques chorus in the Czech Republic, and and become one with the chorus. indeed one of the best in Europe. The body of the chorus is renewed over the course of twenty years, ”For me, the miracle of the Brno but its spirit remains one and the chorus lies in how Pančík manages same.” to maintain its high standards,” Václav Neumann and Zdeněk Chal- on site-specific productions, abala. Another great era for opera launched its activities in 2018 with occurred from 1953 to 1978 under an opera set in a swimming pool. František Jílek (1913–1993). A FAIRYTALE ABOUT OPERA IN THE THEATRE, ON THIRTEEN BOSSES AND ONE THE STAIRS AND AT SCHOOL FESTIVAL In the course of the quarter cen- After Jílek’s departure opera fell tury he was active in Brno, Jílek into eclipse, and the situation only raised opera standards here to the worsened in the period of turbu- highest level. He devoted much lent change following 1989. For time to Janáček (hardly surprising), a long time people still looked back but also to the work of Bohuslav nostalgically to Václav Věžník’s stir- Martinů - definitely not a given ring Communist-era production of under Communism, as Martinů was Nabucco, with its theme of longing still regarded with suspicion as for freedom. But the main feature an emigré. Jílek also conducted of opera in Brno post-1989 was The Janáček Brno festival - guest company ballets and among other things instability: between 1991 and 2014 staging of . Photo: Magdalena Osko Jenufa shaped a ballet form for Capric- the company ran through no fewer cio for Cello and Orchestra by Jan than thirteen heads. Calm, and Ivo Váňa Psota was another Novák (1921–1984). A brilliant Brno a sharp and rapid rise in standards, newcomer to Brno in the interwar composer, Novák later emigrated; only came with the appointment period, first as ballet master and, in the past twenty years his work of Martin Glaser as head of the Na- later, head of the ballet company at has been enjoying a renaissance. tional Theatre and Jiří Heřman as the National Theatre in Brno. It was His cousin Richard Novák is a Brno head of its opera company. thanks to him that the premiere of opera legend, still singing at the Sergei Prokofiev’s balletRomeo and age of eighty-eight. Their greatest success so far has Juliet took place in Brno. been the biennial Janáček Brno Novák’s compositions are favour- festival, whose quality they im- Neumann was the first eminent per- ites with Brno’s Ensemble Opera proved so markedly that it won in sonality to enjoy the height of his Diversa, which launched itself by the “Festival of the Year” category career in Brno; many others began staging minioperas on the stairs at the prestigious International here and then moved on. Among of the Spolek café, gradually de- Opera Awards competition. Both them was the world-famous heroic veloping into a stable yet flexible men were present to accept the Karel Burian (1870–1923), chamber ensemble with original prize at the awards ceremony in who made his debut in Brno in 1891, operas and musical compositions London in April 2019. # as did his younger colleague Leo in its repertoire. Slezak (1873–1946) four years later. Magdalena Kožená’s debut was also In 1957, on the initiative of the with the Brno opera. The famed director Miloš Wasserbauer (1907– Maria Jeritza (1887–1982) was born 1970), the JAMU Chamber Opera was in Brno, though she never sang as formed. It carried out its projects in a soloist here. The early careers of today’s Barka Theatre, but in 2012 several conductors played out in acquired a new space, the Theatre Brno, among them Rafael Kubelík, on Orlí. Hausopera, a group focused

The main strength of the Brno opera But the opera chorus in Brno The concert counterpart to the chorus has always been its culti- has a long tradition - both Leoš opera chorus is the Czech Philhar- vated expression, which Pančík has Janáček and his teacher Pavel monic Choir of Brno, founded and maintained by, among other things, Křížkovský were accomplished led by Petr Fiala. Kantiléna is an creating a concert repertoire. Opera choirmasters. The father of the outstanding choir for children and choruses often mask minor short- modern choir tradition in Moravia young people. comings behind the noise of the or- was Ferdinand Vach (1860-1939), In Brno alone more than sixty groups chestra. Pančík’s chorus knows how who founded the Moravian Male foster choral singing, a figure that to sing demanding compositions Teachers’ Choral Society - unques- doesn’t include church choirs; a list without an orchestra, as a purely tionably the country’s most famous of them all, with short descriptions concert group. men’s choir. Janáček, known for of each, would fill a book - one still his highly critical comments, wrote waiting to be written. of Vach “I dedicate to him not one, but all of my choral works.” #light-hearted muse #light-hearted

OPERETTA muse Operetta is a wilful child that stopped obeying its parents and ran away from the opera house. Its origin is much more explicable when one considers France, where operetta emerged in the mid-nineteenth century as an entertaining and often very sarcastic polar opposite to the megalomaniacal productions of “grand opera”. In Brno, as was the case everywhere else in the world, operetta appealed to the broad public, offering both social satire as well as quite conventional entertainment. In the interwar period, thanks to the enlightened lead of Oldřich Nový, it took on a sophisticated polish. Later the Brno theatre scholar Ivo Osolsobě was able to give it a solid theoretical basis, and so move on from the stultified operetta to the lively musical. Today Brno boasts not only a theatre built specifically for musicals but a degree programme in Musical Acting at JAMU. Through the musical A Ballad for a Bandit the brigand Nikola Šuhaj set off from Brno into the world of theatre and film, while Brno’s Liza Doolittle made her living as My Fair Lady of Zelný trh, Brno’s ancient market square. And so we’ve come full cir- cle: the square is the site of the Reduta theatre, operetta’s home in times past. A MARRIAGE OF MUSIC, own particular demands on singing link with the suave and charming THEATRE AND POPULAR actors and acting singers. This was Nový is a surprising bonus. even more true in the period after Nový’s departure from Brno in 1935 ENTERTAINMENT World War I, when opera acting foreshadowed the collapse of the When the student Theatre on Orlí was a world unto itself and opera First Republic and the German oc- put on Jacques Offenbach’sThe directing as such a very young dis- cupation. Operetta remained on the Wedding by Lantern-Light in 2017, cipline. But among the new mem- programme (at least as long as the it was a return to the genre’s local bers of the troupe was the actor theatres were still open). It copied its roots: in all probability this comic Oldřich Nový. more serious sister opera and more piece was the first operetta ever As joint author Nový also took distant cousin the symphony con- performed in Brno – in 1859, only credit for the highly successful cert by putting greater emphasis on two years after its premiere in Par- theatre revue From Brno to Brno. Czech titles and love for the country is. So operetta was launched on its The protagonists were the brothers in general. But the difficult times that path to widespread popularity, and Valentin and Václav Šindler, who as began for operetta with the war have Brno took the first step to becom- Uncle Křópal and Jozéfek Melhoba continued down to the present day. ing today’s musical theatre centre introduced the public to a Brno that for the whole Czech Republic. was exciting, a city full of surprises The first operetta in Brno was and snares for the unwary, all this BOURGEOIS MONSTER, KATE, performed in German; a quarter presented in the broad dialect of AND A BANDIT of a century had to pass before the neighbouring Hana region. If From time immemorial operetta has operetta in Czech appeared on the someone ever wishes to trace the had to face the charge that it’s a scene. And it was a further thir- origin of Brno’s love of self-irony, debased genre - only the rationale ty years before the first operetta the search should start here. The by a Czech was staged at Brno’s National Theatre - Polish Blood, by the composer Oskar Nedbal. Operetta was a welcome source of revenue for the opera theatre, but it wasn’t a welcome guest. Oper- etta only ceased “encumbering” the Brno opera after the creation of an independent Czechoslovakia in 1918: in the 1918-1919 season a separate musical theatre compa- ny was set up.

OLDŘICH NOVÝ AND A NEW ERA The creation of the new compa- ny brought with it the problem of who to hire. Operetta has its own special features and places its

THE ELEGANT PHANTOM Nový came to Brno in 1919 as OF BRNO OPERETTA a talented actor, only twenty years Oldřich old. At home in both operettas and ”Close your eyes, I’m leaving.” This, stage plays, from the beginning the most famous line spoken by the he made his name playing elegant Nový actor and singer Oldřich Nový, comes lovers with various character flaws from the 1939 filmKristián . This - for example, Count Bola in Oskar story of an ordinary clerk who once Nedbal’s operetta Polish Blood. The a month acts out his fantasy of be- perfect exemplar of this type was ing a man of the world transformed the seductive gangster Macheath in Nový into a Czech film megastar. Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht’s The This was certainly not due to the Threepenny Opera - and on top of commonplace theme, but rather to that, the production Nový starred Nový’s beguiling elegance in the role. in was the work of the great Czech And the same was true of his role as stage director E.F. Burian. the creator of Brno operetta. Mary Poppins in full swing at the Brno Municipal Theatre. Photo: MDB for the charge changes. After World War II, and even more strongly with the coming of the Communist dic- tatorship, operetta became one of the symbols of bourgeois enter- tainment. But this didn’t mean that socialist aesthetics rejected it out of hand: on the contrary, it began to use operetta as a propaganda tool. In the , operettas were composed based on topical themes, and many of them were produced here in Brno. Among the home-grown Czech operettas were Miloš Machek and Miloš Slavík’s Ondráš the Brigand and Mikuláš Dačický of Heslov, with their epo- In the 1970s the composer Miloš Municipal Theatre opened a new nymous Czech heroes. But the time Štědroň and author Milan Uhde, building designed specifically for was fast approaching when initia- both from Brno, teamed up to write performing musicals. That same tive would pass to the musical. musicals. Their A Ballad for a Bandit year, it took over administration of premiered in 1976 in Brno at the The- the Brno musical theatre compa- Credit for this goes to Ivo Osol- atre on a String; thanks to the film ny, which then slowly faded away. sobě (1928–2012), dramaturge of version it became widely known, and These days the New Operetta Stu- the Brno musical theatre company songs from it became common prop- dio is spearheading efforts to keep from 1959. How he managed to erty. A new version of the Ballad, operetta alive. mount the spectacular Broadway created for the same theatre by the musical Kiss Me Kate on Reduta’s The man behind the Brno Municipal director Vladimír Morávek in 2005, tiny stage is a mystery. Osolsobě Theatre’s special focus on musicals chalked up over two hundred per- promoted operetta and the musical is the theatre manager and director formances in the course of the next as genres fully equal to opera and Stanislav Moša. Classics such as thirteen years. Karel David’s musical devoted a still-relevant study to Hair, Cats, Les Misérables and Stars in the Willow achieved cult them, The Theatre that Speaks, Mary Poppins have been staged as status in 1992. Sings and Dances. It was thanks to well as contemporary creations by Osolsobě and the director Stanislav Štědroň and Uhde, Zdeněk Merta, Fišer that Bernstein’s musical West OPERETTA IS DEAD, LONG Petr Ulrych and others. And there Side Story was staged in Brno in LIVE THE MUSICAL! is a unique opportunity for direct 1970. cooperation with the Department Following the opening of the of Musical Acting at JAMU: the borders with the West in 1989, the professional theatre and students A Ballad for a Bandit - a huge hit on stage musical slowly but surely steam- of the craft are only ten minutes by and screen. Photo: DHNP archives rolled operetta. In 2004 the Brno foot from each other. #

It soon became clear that Nový was Nový changed people’s attitude to not satisfied with merely acting the genre and left behind a lasting in musical comedies, but felt an imprint on operetta - and by exten- increasingly strong urge to create sion the musical - in Brno. And it was them. He became Assistant Direc- here that he learned everything he tor and soon after that Director of was later to draw on so successfully the Brno musical theatre compa- in the New Theatre in Prague and in ny. Nový’s decade as head of the his career as a film star. company from 1925 to 1935 laid the During World War II Nový refused to foundations of what has distin- desert his Jewish wife, and was im- guished the operetta and musical in prisoned in a concentration camp. Brno down to the present day: the effort to bring professionalism and After the Communist takeover in higher aesthetic standards to popu- 1948, he was only given minor film lar entertainment. and television roles. He died in 1983 at the age of eighty-three. #improvisational league #improvisational league

JAZZ ”What is my definition of jazz? Safe sex of the highest order.” So claimed the American writer Kurt Vonnegut. Brno indulges in this type of eroticism with a passion approach- ing the orgiastic: at the present time it has at least three regular jazz festivals, an outstanding big band, and a Jazz Department at JAMU. While in the past jazz players managed to worm their way into dance clubs and night spots, today they can be found in clubs of all kinds, devoting themselves to everything from traditional jazz to free im- provisation. Great music promoters and great jazz artists are quite at home in the city. It can happen that just days apart Brno offers concerts by Wynton Marsalis and his Jazz at Lincoln Centre Orchestra as well as by the local improvisational big band Diver- gent Connections Orchestra. The distant godfathers of Brno jazz are the saxophonist Gerry Mulligan and Charlie Parker. The former had a strong influence on the creation of the Orchestra, while the latter’s nickname was “Bird”: in Latin, this is Ornis - the name of the first and only Brno jazz club to have lasted more than a few seasons. announcements at the city’s main train station. The first sketch for the tune was made by Gustav Brom (1921–1995), supposedly at four o’clock in the morning, when Kainar dragged him from his bed for this purpose. But that was in 1955, and by this time the fame of Brom’s orchestra had travelled far beyond the city limits. The original group that took shape in Rožnov was no more than a six-per- son nucleus of the future big band. During the war Brom’s band grew steadily larger, playing in cafés and variety theatres, and even began making regular radio broadcasts. But Brom’s orchestra became part of jazz history not because of its dance music or even the still pop- The eponymous founder of the Gustav ular song “Salute to an Astronaut” Brom Orchestra, which he led until his Today’s choosy jazz fans would have (a.k.a. “Hello, Major Gagarin”), but death in 1995. Photo: OGB archives found little to capture their interest because of its interest in more am- on the interwar Brno jazz scene. bitious jazz projects. The orchestra TALENT LOST AND TALENT They would have had to wait till 1940 grew, taking on new members such GAINED for the birth of the first genuine - as Luděk Hulan, Josef Audes and and till the present day unmatched Ivan Dominák. They brought with As a gifted boy, the composer Erich - Brno jazz band. And on top of that, them a love for the baritone saxo- Wolfgang Korngold moved with his they would have had to travel to the phonist Gerry Mulligan, still fostered parents to Vienna, where he went eastern Moravian town of Rožnov today by the Brno saxophone-based on to become a world-famous pod Radhoštěm, for it was there that cool jazz sextet MulliGang. composer and later attain renown the Gustav Brom Orchestra was born. in Hollywood. Less well known is Later the orchestra also focused his older brother, Hans Robert, who on third stream pieces – composed as early as 1928 was performing in DAISIES, GAGARIN AND THIRD music with a jazz aesthetic. One of the most prominent members of Vienna with his H. R. Korngolds Min- STREAM strel-Jazzband. So the departure the orchestra was Jaromír Hnilička, of the Korngold family from Brno In one of his songs the poet Josef whose Jazz Mass was premiered deprived the city not only of the Kainar celebrated the stars as in the 1960s by Brom’s orchestra; famous future composer but also daisies over Brno, and the melody recently it met with great critical of the potential founder of its jazz the poem was set to is still used success when performed by the tradition. today as the signature tune for Brno B-Side Band. A key individual,

JAZZMAN BY GIFT OF GOD - imprisonment in Mirov, one of the AND CIRCUMSTANCES country’s most dreaded politi- Jaromír cal prisons, after the Communist Though born in , he putsch in 1948. As a result, the identified his whole life fully with, only school willing to accept the Hnilička on the one hand, Brno, and on the young Hnilička was the Bratislava other, jazz. conservatory. ”I wanted to be an electrical engi- Of course this wasn’t Hnilička’s neer,” recalled the composer and first encounter with music - he’d trumpet player Jaromír Hnilička been taking piano and harp les- (1932–2016) when speaking of his sons since the age of eight. But plans as a young man. But his fa- the conservatory had enough pia- ther, a military officer and admirer nists, so Hnilička ended up study- of Czechoslovakia’s first Presi- ing the trumpet. Today this sounds dent, Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, utterly unbelievable: for us, it’s as served with the American army though Jaromír Hnilička was born in World War II, which led to his with a trumpet in his hand and and not only for Brno jazz, was the though spatially they were spread Spring and autumn series of concerts Brom orchestra’s dramaturge, Max out through the whole city. entitled Jazz Spring and Jazz Brno Wittmann (1941–2011). In the 1970s, were launched in 1998 by the manag- Downbeat magazine ranked the er Jiří Švéda, held first in the Alterna Brom orchestra among the world’s FESTIVALS, CONCERT SERIES club and later in Stará Pekárna. top five big bands. AND UBIQUITOUS JAZZMEN Somewhere between a festival Without question the most impor- and a series of chamber concerts ON THE WINGS OF A BIRD tant jazz festival today is JazzFest- comes Moravia Jazz Fest (since Brno, which since its beginnings in 2018 Groove Brno). But the main But Brom’s orchestra wasn’t all that 2002 has worked its way to being impact of the festival’s director Brno had to offer. In 1957 theOrnis an internationally recognized event Josef Buchta comes through his jazz club was established, devoted with top-flight guest artists such as B-Side Band, which has taken on to educational events and live music. Chick Corea, Bobby McFerrin, Wyn- the legendary Brom band’s role as Housed originally in the Brno House ton Marsalis and many more. But the a top-rate jazz big band engaged in of Arts, the club was active in vari- two key local persons for the fes- both dance music and complicated ous places until 1988, the only stable tival are Vilém Spilka and Vlastimil projects. jazz club that Brno has ever had. Trllo. Both are skilled managers and Brno lacks a club devoted solely to active musicians; in 2010 the former Interest in jazz fluctuated over jazz, so Brno’s jazzmen play every- founded the Department of Jazz time, declining slightly in the 1960s, where, from the up-scale Sono Centre Interpretation at JAMU, the first of probably owing to the invasion of to the tiny Ebis restaurant. This its kind in the Czech Republic, which rock music. One of the most active means there’s always a bit of uncer- he continues to head. organizers was Jan Beránek, a jazz tainty – but also a lot of improvisa- violinist and fanatic, nicknamed tion, which lies at the roots of jazz. # the “jazz policeman”. Now going under another name - Jan Dalecký - he’s still the same unmistaka- ble personality, familiar to fans of today’s JazzFestBrno as a uniquely accomplished emcee. Otherwise jazz bands could be found playing in cafés and bars and night spots – though they were gradually eased out from these last by pop groups and new kinds of dance music. The first local jazz festival came in 1987 – Jazztifal Brno. Festivals brought with them a concentration of jazz activities,

Bobby McFerrin at JazzFestBrno. Photo: Martin Zeman straightaway joined the Gustav hnilophone, a combination of trum- for himself as interpreter entitled Brom Orchestra. In fact he became pet, French horn and tuba. Suite for a Quarter-tone Trum- a member of this famous Brno big pet. Working together with Karel He composed the music for a song band in 1956, remaining there for Velebný, he made a number of saluting Yuri Gagarin, but for him more than half a century. jazz arrangements of folk songs, personally it was of little impor- which he and a ten-member band Only a year after he joined the tance. His masterpiece is the Jazz recorded for an album entitled orchestra, it was playing his Egyp- Mass – a major composition based Týnom tánom. tian Suite, which he composed on the liturgical text whose music, together with Luděk Hulan. The content and spiritual quality are Hnilička’s last great composi- young trumpet player’s attraction the exact opposite of the ba- tion was his Brno Suite (2012), to more ambitious concepts was nal ditty in honour of the Soviet in which his two great loves, the evident from the very beginning. cosmonaut. city he lived in and the musical He enriched the sound of the genre he devoted his life to, met At workshops abroad Hnilička orchestra not only through his symbolically. met with Miles Davis and Woody highly distinctive trumpet playing, Herman. From the composer Pavel but also through the invention Blatný he commissioned a piece of an instrument he called the #bands and folk groups

FOLKLORE Folklore has the capacity to absorb the worst events and historical upheavals and shape them to its benefit. However, it’s an open question whether this is proof of the healthy, indestructible spirit of ordinary people, or of an affinity between folk art and capitalism. Folklore was able to survive the Nazi occupation, when people seized upon it like a life belt. It managed to get through the forty years of Communism, when it was misused by the powers that be. In the past thirty years, the folklore movement has gained strength and flourished even more. Often only long after the fact do you realize just how much melodies of traditional Moravian folk songs influenced bands like Pro- gres 2, Druhá tráva and Čankišou. And then there are those who work consistently and intelligently with folklore, like Hana Ulrychová and her brother Petr Ulrych and Jiří Pav- lica. But folklore isn’t just a matter of the countryside and villages - it’s alive in cities as well. Brno is no exception, though here folklore has always felt more at home away from the centre and the Establishment. Brno itself isn’t a strong folklore region, but it acts like a magnet to attract everything that’s going on in southern Moravia. #bands and folk groups IN SEARCH OF ROOTS musical psychologist, the genius the whole world knows today. But The turbulent nineteenth century before World War I Janáček also was an age of romantic passion, recorded folk singing on several revolutions and the emergence phonograph cylinders. In 1998 Jirí of ethnically-based states. This Plocek’s publishing house Gnosis was closely linked with the urge to issued a re-edition, while a defini- uncover the ancient roots of one’s tive reconstruction was carried out nation, and folk songs were one of in 2012 by the Czech Academy of the sources people turned to first. Sciences. In Moravia the leading figures in the Janáček also collected what he creation of collections of folk songs called “speech tunes”, short bits were František Sušil (1804–1868) of human speech he heard in the and František Bartoš (1837–1906). city. Though primarily a source of Thanks to them, it was not only musical inspiration, thanks to them folklore that came to Brno, but also we have a record of the ordinary the attempt to collect it systemat- everyday speech of Brno folk ically. Sušil’s collection is a source a century ago. The napevkymluvy. of many songs that a century later cz project is bringing together all became part of the repertoire of these notations, which are docu- the contemporary singer-songwrit- ments from the period when Brno’s at the Brno division of Czechoslovak er Jaroslav Hutka and the Čecho- distinctive jargon also emerged. mor modern folk group. Radio, which issued in the establish- Now known as “hantec”, this re- ment of BROLN. mains part of the genuinely local, Brno urban folklore. From its very beginning in 1952 FOLKLORE STUDIES AS the Brno Radio Orchestra of Folk SCHOLARLY PURSUIT AND Instruments (BROLN) became the ART WAVES OF MIGRATION, gold standard for traditional folk music and song. Famous singers One of the many interests of Leoš BRINGING VIOLINS such as Dušan and Luboš Holý, Janáček (1854–1928) was collect- AND CIMBALOMS Jožka Severin and Jarmila Šulák- At the age of eleven Janáček was ová worked with them. At the time torn away from his native region of of his Brno concert in 1964, the Lašsko in northeastern Moravia, thus American songwriter, activist and becoming the godfather of all those icon of the international modern in Brno who look back in search folk movement Pete Seeger heard of their folklore identity. As early BROLN. Later, he refused to believe as 1908 “immigrants” to Brno from that what he had heard were old the southeastern Moravian region Moravian folk songs and not con- of Slovácko founded the Slovácký temporary urban folklore. BROLN krúžek. Between 1936 and 1947 this was headed by a series of superb association published a seven-vol- musicians, among them Bohumil ume collection of folk songs that still Smejkal and Bohdan Warchal. The forms its folk repertoire canon to this former later became first violin of day. The Slovácký krúžek also had the Janáček Quartet; the lat- a strong influence on programming ter founded the Slovak Chamber

Jarmila Šuláková, queen of Valašsko folk song. Photo: Fleret band archives A SCHOLARLY LOOK AT Otakar BRNO‘S “PLOTNA” ing folk songs. He was also the first In 1929 Otakar Nováček (1901–1986) person to bring to Brno musicians published the first book dealing in from the Horňácko region in south- Nováček depth with the Brno social under- eastern Moravia. It’s fascinating to class known as “plotna”, along with follow how collecting folk songs, its distinctive jargon. His work has with its need to jot the notes three parts. In the first the author’s down quickly, affected not only his aim is “to capture the colourful life handwriting but also his musical of the interesting caste that prides way of thinking: he went from being itself on its Brno moniker of ‘plotna’.” a classical collector making careful The second part comprises examples notes to a scratching, idiosyncratic of authentic interviews, jokes and Living folklore - St Bartholomew feast day Indies Scope captured the contem- in Brno-Žebětín. Photo: Václav Kříž porary face of Moravian folklore in its eight-part set An Anthology of Moravian Folk Music. Brno is close- joined together in the Associa- ly linked with the singer-songwrit- tion of Friends of Folklore, which er Tomáš Kočko and the recently also organizes the annual Brno deceased singer and violinist Jitka International Folklore Festival. An Šuranská, both heavily influenced essential part of the Brno cultural by traditional Moravian folk music. scene is Romani folklore, which can Marie Hvozdecká’s interesting be experienced at the Museum of project “Folklore and the City” has Romani Culture and in the streets. been functioning since 2017. There’s a strong Slovak folklore presence in the city, and the Greek Folklore is not an inert, dead mass, community is also quite active. but a living and continuously developing force. The outstanding singer and ethnographer Dušan FOLK ART OF THE FUTURE Holý once commented that “The Folk music continues to live its only proper approach is one that’s own life, its roots growing into creative. When I began singing with ever new shapes. Alongside the BROLN, I tried to imitate my uncle flood of postmodern, postpunk Martin Hrbáč a bit. And my dad said Orchestra. BROLN was also an ex- and postrock, postfolklore has also ‘Old Hrbáč - forget him. Sing like cellent “export article”, and spread developed, for example with the a young person!’”# Moravian folklore throughout the Ponk band, prizewinner both here world. Babylonfest, aimed at highlighting the and abroad (the world music expo culture and traditions of the city’s ethnic An immensely important role in WOMEX). The Brno music publisher minorities. Photo: Robert Vystrčil Moravian folk music’s successes abroad was played by the leg- endary radio editor Jaromír Nečas (1922–2015). Thanks to him an album by the Břeclavan folk en- semble was included in the Phillips catalogue in its “Voyages autour du monde” edition. The cover notes still retain their French-Moravian dialect charm: “Bienvenue Janíček!” The Slovácký krúžek didn’t remain alone in Brno. In 1946, enthusiasts from Valašsko in northeastern Moravia who had drifted ashore in Brno founded the Valašský krúžek. Nowadays VUS Ondráš is the best- known of the several dozen folk ensembles and cimbalom bands active in Brno. Many of them have songs of this group, and the third is From the linguistic point of view, The famous Czech actor Ka- a Brno jargon-Czech dictionary. Nováček’s book is an unintended rel Höger, a contemporary of gloss on the texts of Rudolf Těsno- Nováček’s whose origins lay in Nováček takes the reader back to hlídek, who in The Cunning Little Brno’s “plotna” milieu, once read a time when Brno was not yet an Vixen and elsewhere captured the excerpts from Nováček’s book for organic whole and the city’s newly speech of Brno and its surroundings Czech Radio. Nováček himself was absorbed districts were beginning with documentary precision. For us born in Husovice when it was an to lose their independent character. today it seems incredible how much independent municipality and died In addition to capturing the bizarre the speech of the forester from in Brno long after the city had ab- world of the urban underclass, Bílovice and the poacher from Líšně sorbed his birthplace. almost in passing he presents the in Těsnohlídek’s tale used to differ, vestiges of what we would now call even though these two towns on Brno urban folklore. the outskirts of Brno are less than five kilometres from one another. #campfire poetry banjo #campfire poetry banjo FOLK, ”It’s a long journey to the West, / Pointless, fruitless is the longing,” began the first cowboy song recording issued by R. A. Dvorský’s publishing house in 1939. The theme and tone reflect the “tramping” movement, with its idealized vision of “America” and its unspoiled “nature”, which led Czechs to take to the woods, where they hiked, met round campfires and sang songs modelled on American folk songs and country music. So widespread was the tramping phenomenon that it made its way into popular music, where it long remained. Over time, the romance of the cowboy and the idea of a free life on the Great Plains found their way not only into songs sung by such late twenti- eth-century stars as , Helena Vondráčková and Waldemar Matuška but into social life itself: very few countries in Europe have such liberal laws when it comes to sleeping overnight, or even setting up camp, in the woods. In the past young people in Brno could choose whether to be “city slickers” hooked on discotheques or “wander- ers”, who would head for the main train station every Friday afternoon or Saturday and from there set out on the first train for wherever in the countryside it was heading to. Brno tramps - “The Green Seven Sings”. Photo: Motal, Brno

THE ROMANCE OF THE OUTDOORS Tramps, modern folk fans, lovers of country music - it’s probably owing to the Porta music festival, which caters to all three groups, that many people put them in the same bag. But tramps just laugh at this: they’re the single truly original Czech sub-culture, with no coun- terpart anywhere else in the world. Deep roots and unbelievable tenac- ity mark tramp music, modern folk and country music - three genres that, despite all their differences, are inseparably linked together in this country. TRAMPS VS. UNIFORMITY Oslava River, a favourite “stomping ground” for tramps. The beginnings of Brno tramping The greyness of the “normalization” date back to sometime around era in Brno following the Soviet 1937, when the Mládí settlement invasion in 1968 was significantly MODERN FOLK AND ROCK IN was established. This year one of dispersed by the Ozvěna group, ONE BIG HEAP its founding members, Ladislav whose songs were sung every- “Fidler” Krevňák, celebrated his where. Equally important was the In 1964 Brno was the first stop on ninety-fifth birthday; he’s still concert series of the Friends of American singer-songwriter Pete a member of the Žízeň group. He Campfires, which Ozvěna organ- Seeger’s tour of Czechoslova- survived - like the tramping move- ized. The singer Pavla Střechová kia. The soul of the international ment itself - the eras of Nazi and (Dvořáčková) could be considered modern folk music movement, Communist persecution and was a symbol of how genres and indi- Seeger gave a huge boost to the there when Brno bands emerged viduals intermingle in Brno: after emergence of different varieties of with their own original repertoires. leaving Ozvěna she became one of Czech modern folk, whose form was The early years of the Porta festival the founding members of the mod- in fact derived more from American saw successful appearances by the ern folk group Bokomara and also models than from local traditions. rather traditional Vavasatch (1969) belonged to the Brno rock group (Probably Seeger himself would not as well as the more modern, light Progres-Pokrok. A fixed star that have been very happy about this.) swing Příboj (1973). But the Kara- arose out of tramping is the Brno In 1974 Folk Team began its march bina band showed that you could band Kamelot, whose leader Roman to the heights of Czech modern folk become a legend without winning Horký led a recent campaign to with the musical personalities Roman any prizes at Porta. block a plan to build a dam on the

OURS IS THE STRENGTH to take shape at the end of the OF FORTY 1930s, and its self-imposed internal The discipline and independence were Tramping is characterized by to prove anathema to both the many external attributes, roman- Nazis and the Communists. Sur- League tic attitudes and rituals that may prisingly, the rapid development strike outsiders as laughable. But of the tramping movement in the its basic feature is fellowship, and Brno region coincided with the of Brno wherever there are “tramps”, they approaching German occupation create “settlements” – gathering and the beginning of World War II. places in the great outdoors, with In 1943 the idea arose of linking to- a rudimentary shack or two and gether the Brno-based settlements. Settle- a campfire site, all overseen by an Representatives of six settlements elected “sheriff”. Each settlement met to discuss the proposal. has its own name. ments So on 10 April 1944 around one In Brno and its surroundings this hundred tramps gathered in independent fellowship began a meadow north of Brno, headed by Venclovský and Ivan Huvar. The band Minoris group he works with “hard When Křesťan and the banjo player leader Pavel Kopřiva is also active rock” inspired by medieval music. Luboš Malina left Poutníci in 1991 in the modern folk scene as a CD to found Druhá trava, they worked publisher and manager. Jiří Vondrák from a bluegrass base to create is a phenomenon on the Brno folk THE BANJO - AT HOME IN a top-flight band with a contempo- scene, having helped found several BLUEGRASS AND WORLD rary, distinctive sound. The man- bands. He played in the Vondrák MUSIC dolin player Jiří Plocek was also – Bodlák duo, and in the Bowle trio a member of Poutníci; after leaving he appeared with the rockers Pavel When the term “songwriter” crops it he founded the world music Váně and Richard Lašek from the up, then in Brno it’s immediately oriented Tea Grass. Etno Brno, an Bronz band. Vondrák’s concerts at associated with Robert Křesťan, annual series of concerts in the times included Czech translations a superb artist who in addition to Stará Pekárna club, serves Brno of songs of the Soviet singer-song- his own work dedicated one of his a regular dose of world music. writers Bulat Okudzhava and Vladimir albums to translations of Bob Dylan At times the composer and pianist Vysotsky. He’s also a screenwriter and paid homage to Leonard Cohen Zdeněk Král also strays into the and director of documentary films in a song entitled “Víla”. He began world of the singer-songwriter. dealing thematically with tramping with the tramp band Trapeři and in A Knife for Silence, an album that and modern folk. the 1980s moved to the bluegrass group Poutníci - their combination he recorded with the singer AndRea For many years Brno was home to of a strong creative leader and Buršová and the crossover group one of the greatest Czech sing- a band with outstanding players Indigo Quartet, is magnificent, and er-songwriters - Slávek Janoušek. was a phenomenon unmatched in in its way links up with the reticent But Nikola Mucha also began her the Czech context. legend of singer-songwriting for career as a singer-songwriter so- the theatre Jiří Bulis (1946–1993). # loist with a guitar, as did the solo musician and front man for Květy Martin E. Kyšperský. The closer modern folk approaches the present day, the harder it is to characterize it as a separate genre. The univer- sal American term “songwriter” is also coming into fashion in Czech to designate someone who creates songs and sings them as he or she feels most appropriate, paying little attention to stylistic classification. For a long time Zdeněk Němeček has operated at the borderline between modern folk and rock; as singer-songwriter with the Quanti

Poutníci at the height of its popularity in the 1980s. Photo: Supraphon the sheriff of a settlement named events. The grand potlach in the Český lev (Bohemian Lion). Aston- autumn of 1948 took on the char- ishing. And equally astonishing is acter of a national tramp assembly. how a settlement named after the The later fate of the League mir- Czech heraldic symbol escaped the rored the political situation. After notice of the Nazi authorities. The the Communists came to power the true history of the League of Brno existence of an independent insti- Settlements (SBO), however, begins tution was unthinkable, as was the on 24 June 1945, when representa- publication of the tramps’ magazine tives of the Caballeros and Rowers Tulák. The League revived with the settlements held a major celebra- political thaw in the 1960s. Of the tion (”potlach”) north of Brno. That original members, Rowers, Sosna August the League was officially and Netopýr still exist. In 1987 an proclaimed. By 1948 more than informal grouping, Old Boys Brno, forty settlements were represented began carrying out activities in the and tramps throughout Czechoslo- spirit of the League. vakia were invited to attend joint #hard-boiled brno ROCK, METAL, POP For many people, leafing through a brief history of Brno rock music is like looking at their own life - they recall many events, many of them they experienced personally. And there’re still some people around who’ve been involved with almost everything. To get a better idea, it’s enough to point out that the drummer Zdeněk Kluka began playing with Atlantis in 1962, was one of the founders of The Progress Organization in 1968, and today plays with the re-formed Progress and the ethnic pop band Čankišou. For his part, Karel Heřman sings with these groups - and more than thirty years ago he was the frontman for the promising new wave band Karlův skok. And the above-men- tioned Atlantis became popular in 1968 when it took in the siblings Hana and Petr Ul- rych , who’ve long since ceased to be rockers, but remain musicians and singers of the highest quality. This typical personal entanglement is characteristic of the Brno rock scene, which has absorbed everything from Beatlemania through the dazzling world of conceptual art rock to alternative, heavy metal, entertaining guitar band music and even some pop here and there.

#hard-boiled brno released publically in 1990. Later the brother and sister team created an exceptionally interesting fusion of Moravian folklore and popular music for their current band Javory.

PROGRES, PROGRESS, THE FUTURE Ulrych came to Atlantis just as the drummer Zdeněk Kluka left. In 1968 Kluka was one of the found- ers of The Progress Organization. Many lines of force of the Brno music scene came together in The Progress Organization and its later mutations Barnodaj, Progres 2 and Progress 2, playing since 1968. Photo: Progres-Pokrok. Some members band archives even played in bands accompanying Bob Frídl and the sisters Martha

EVERYONE PLAYING WITH the Brno art rock wave, gifting its EVERYONE ELSE fans with a succession of concept albums as well as the memorable Quite possibly the Brno rock scene maxim “War is an ass!” Synkopy 61 has beat more in accord with the continues to perform today. throbbing pulse of the city than any other genre, perhaps because Atlantis began playing in 1964, at there’s something down-to-earth at first others’ pieces, but afterPetr the core of rock that doesn’t allow Ulrych joined the band in 1967 they reality to be ignored. In Brno this acquired not only a reliable singer reality is that of a small city where but even more important an out- you can go almost everywhere on standing songwriter. He was followed foot, everybody knows everybody soon afterwards by his sister Hana else and, depending on the momen- Ulrychová, one of the greatest sing- tary situation, they either cooperate ers in the history of Czech popular or aren’t speaking with each other. music. The highlight of their work But as a group, they’re all marked by together was Ulrych’s concept album individuality and by their difference The Odyssey; recorded in 1969, it from the rest of the world. It was was immediately banned and only within this context that the 1960s witnessed the birth of a music of ECSTASY WITH AND tangled relationships and the first signs of ambitious concepts - fea- Tom WITHOUT A GUITAR tures that would mark it for at least ”All my projects always foundered the next quarter of a century. because of a lack of managerial skills One of the first bands to emerge, Jegr or the total absence of any man- agement at all,” the songwriter and in 1960, was Synkopy, then known guitarist Tom Jegr once confessed in as Synkopy 61. Starting with dance music, it soon shifted to rock with an interview. This makes him sound pleasant vocals influenced partly like the prototype of the rocker who plays a lot but is only interested by California’s Beach Boys. And in fact when the Beach Boys held in the music itself and ignores the a concert in Brno in 1969, Synkopy business side of things. But Jegr’s was the opening band. By that time projects have “foundered” ever since it had been joined by the keyboard 1982, when he was present at the player, singer and accomplished birth of the Brno heavy metal legend Krabat. Since then he has moved composer Oldřich Veselý, who later left for Blue Effect, headed by the on to , Southern rock and legendary guitarist Radim Haldík. rock writing and singing in general, In the 1980s Synkopy was part of and Tena Elefteriadu, which took them into the world of pop music as pure entertainment. But their most important creative contributions have remained the concept projects Dialogue with the Universe (1978) and The Third Book of the Jungle (1981). After Dialogue the guitarist and singer Pavel Váně left the group to found his own project, Bronz. Following The Third Book the group lost another leading member, Roman Dragoun, who went on to found Futurum. But we’re now well into the 1980s, when alternative and un- derground as well as hard rock and heavy metal joined the scene. NIcola Mucha, whose music is marked by THE SORCERER’S a punk sound and controversial issues. Photo: Dita Pepe and Petr Hrubeš Sailing through the waters of pop music APPRENTICES – Monika Bagárová. Photo: Brno – City of Music Probably the first group in Brno to take a serious interest in playing black metal band Root, with the music approximating heavy met- singer Jiří “Big Boss” Valter, founder al was Krabat (named after the of the Czech branch of the Church apprentice and protagonist of the of Satan, became a cult legend. fantasy novel Krabat and the Sor- cerer’s Mill). The guitarists Tomáš Jégr and Pavel Řehoř created the CLUBS AND ROCK FLOURISH repertoire for the band, and though At the end of the eighties and early Krabat was short-lived, its impact nineties, following the collapse of was lasting. At one point it included the Communist regime, rock clubs later members of Titanic and Kern, began to appear. The legendary bands that were enormously popular predated November 1989, in the eighties and nineties and Křenka while newcomers included , are still playing today. Their hard Labuť and , followed later rock contemporaries performed as Harlem Machina by Mersey, Stará Pekárna, Alterna, Dogma Art – today Martin Marthus Fléda and the lavish Sono Centrum. Škaroupka, the son of its guitarist, The more upbeat guitar bands plays drums in Titanic and the Výlet and Helmutova stříkačka extreme metal British band Cradle of made their name, as did the intense Filth. The internationally successful Narvan. The nineties also gave birth to one of today’s most distinctive but his music and guitar playing directly. Perhaps it really does just re- Brno bands, Květy. have always retained a feeling of quire a bit of management for it to be authenticity. better known. And perhaps, too, this An alternative approach, a feeling isn’t the best age for pure genres. for poetry, the ability of a hit maker, ”I play it how I feel it” must be one of and personal charisma all come the worst clichés uttered by musi- The list of bands Jegr has played together in Květy’s founder, Martin cians, no matter of what genre. In in, from Krabat through Detto, E. Kyšperský. The band has received Jegr’s case this comment makes Maxon, Lehká noha and Charlie several Czech music awards; one of sense in the context of his music and the Bomber to today’s Tom Jegr its current members is Ondřej Kyas, his way of life. With Krabat he helped & Gang, is amazing. Over the years, the house composer for Ensemble create a Czech concept of heavy it’s as though the music gradually Opera Diversa. Kyšperský also ini- metal that rejected foreign models. stopped shouting, started search- tiated a memorial album honouring In later years, Jegr embodied another ing about and thinking more, and the singer-songwriter and composer rock prototype, that of the musician finally settled down where it feels of incidental music Jiří Bulis. who lurches from alcohol to drugs best. And it expresses itself as to religious ecstasy. But luckily the convincingly on the almost acous- As for the pop scene in today’s music in him has always won out and tic solo album Harmony as with his Brno, mention must be made though it hasn’t changed very much rock gang. It’s not hard to like it, at least of the singer Monika for many years now, it always radi- even when it’s “just” rock’n’roll. Bagárová. But Brno has always fa- ates the need to convey something voured alternative music and wave after wave of new styles. # #linked by adversity

UNDERGROUND, PUNK Were it not for the bizarre atmosphere created by the political situation in the 1970s and 1980s, many things in Brno’s musical underground would have been different. In particu- lar, it’s probable that many people simply wouldn’t have met up with each other. The desire and courage to express oneself freely was motivation so strong that it could bring together in a single band a publican-singer, a virtuoso double bass player and a trained composer. Brno had to wait a while for its underground music to achieve fame - it only began to flourish in the 1980s. But then it was as though the dam had burst, to the ad- miring amazement of one of the leading figures in the Czech alternative scene, Mikoláš Chadima. Of course the question always arises what it was that the bands, which often played rather badly, on pitiful instruments, were offering an alternative to. Musically it was the very opposite of the polished cosmic visions and elegant concepts of profes- sional groups. At the human level, it was an alternative to the continual dilemma of how to deal with censorship, repression and endless caution. And this is where the impor- tance of musical alternative and underground still remains today. #linked by adversity The Dunaj band with the singer and violinist Iva Bittová. Photo: Dunaj archives

A STROLL THROUGH THE UNDERGROUND For a long time music in Brno lacked an underground or even just an off- shoot that didn’t cater to the mass taste of the public. While members of Prague underground bands had already served prison terms and were banned, rock music in Brno led a more tranquil, safer life. But the situation changed at the beginning of the eighties. While Prague was boxed in by prohibitions, Brno lay under the authorities’ radar and be- came the musical centre for bands that were determined to create ”LIKE GRASSHOPPERS AND freely and without any compromises. LIKE HORSES” This line from one of the texts of “YOU’RE AFRAID? THEN KEEP the Dunaj band could well refer to YOUR MOUTH SHUT!” the alternative scene in Brno, which multiplied in numbers and charged This quote from a song by the Od- steadily forward. Dunaj’s style be- vážní bobříci band was very good came one of the most influential on advice in the 1980s. If you didn’t the whole Czech alternative scene. keep your mouth shut you might Its first line-up included Iva Bittová well get it smacked, as participants and Pavel Fajt. Later both went in- in a rock festival at Žabčice not dependent as an untraditional violin far from Brno learned in 1983. The and drum duo, and even later Bittová festival was banned a few hours became world-famous as a soloist. before it was to begin, and disap- Today she lives and works in the pointed rock fans set out for Brno, USA, where she has cooperated with where most of them ended up in the composition-focused Bang on The Dunaj style also had an impor- a popular pub. The police raid that a Can and other leading contempo- tant offshoot. One of its members quickly followed was brutal: people rary music groups. In fact there are at one point was the compos- were beaten, bitten by police dogs, no limits to her stylistic range and er Zdeněk Plachý (1961–2018), arrested and some even sentenced she has even sung Donna Elvira in an organizer of happenings and on ridiculous charges. So the Don Giovanni and Mefisto in Alfred outdoor megaconcerts and the atmosphere in Brno was far from Schnittke’s Faust cantato. spiritus agens of musical life at idyllic. Fortunately, the alternative scene refused to be intimidated.

By that time “general meetings” ART AND LIFE IN A SINGLE were taking place in Brno where Jaroslav INDIVIDUAL bands who refused to be deprived ”I’ll give him a punch sign between of their freedom met with each his eyes!” Jaroslav Erik Frič once other. Among them were Odvážní growled in his raspy voice, angered , led by . Erik Frič bobříci Ivo Horák Pro pocit when an editor returned a text to jistoty, linked to it through personal him. Frič’s contribution was too ties, had an even more distinctive long - he’d exceeded the pre- musical style set by the composer scribed number of signs. But this Martin Dohnal. And of the immense was probably because he measured number of “new wave” bands in words and actions not according to Brno, it’s impossible to overlook their number, but according to their Ještě jsme se nedohodli, whose sense. Frič wasn’t a musician, but members included Karel David, later his activities are inseparably linked the lyricist for Iva Bittová, and the with the Brno musical underground. drummer Pavel Fajt. the Skleněná louka club. Without founded by Jan Šebesta. This bizarre composer, sound designer and per- Plachý’s activities the Brno music informal collection of friends even former. The Děti kapitána Morgana scene would have been infinitely had a Persian section, whose only band and the annual Krákor festival poorer. member was Ruzbeh Oweyssi. represent tradition as well as the He was there at the birth of many “gentrification” of contemporary Another “Dunaj offshoot” was projects, among them Brno’s Hády, underground. the E band of the guitarist Josef from 1992 to 1995 a haven for inde- Ostřanský and the bass guitar- pendent music on the airwaves. The ist Vladimír Václavek, where the association’s evening events even ALL LENKA’S CHILDREN key figure was the singerVladimír hosted the hardcore bands S.R.K. Kokolia, now one of the country’s Brno alternative music is unthinka- and Insania, still today among the top leading artists. After Fajt left, he ble without Lenka Zogatová. Back Czech hard music groups. The punk was followed at Dunaj on percus- in the 1980s she brought Nico and band Zeměžluč is another legend. sion by Pavel Koudelka, formerly Swans to Brno, and she pursued her a member of the outstanding “Cub- ”Alternative culture is in a perma- independent creative activities right ist” band Z kopce, which had been nent state of readiness vis-à-vis until her death in 2014. This marked founded by Petr Váša, later well- the Establishment,” Martin Dohnal the symbolic end of a world in which known for his physical poetry. once claimed. Every social system even the creation of a rock band was legitimizes its existence. Two now an act of civic courage. And in this A major meeting point for the Brno alterna- connection, we should not forget tive scene - the “Střelak” pub deceased poets embodied the importance of the textual message the dissident Petr Cibulka: spreading – Pavel “Homér” Ambrož and Jaro- recordings of independent music slav Erik Frič. Both were linked to cost him several years in Communist alternative music, Ambrož through prisons. # the Idiot Crusoe band, Frič through Čvachtavý lachtan. Another mem- Insania playing on its home turf. Photo: ber of the latter was Tomáš Vtípil, Zbyněk Maděryč

LET’S HAVE A GOOD TIME TOGETHER A great many Brno bands played at events organized by the Bohe- mian-Moravian Benevolent Society,

One could go on at length about still exists today. For Frič, this player and singer-songwriter Radim all that Frič did. But if one were spiritual ground was not something Babák as well as Martin E. Kyšper- to speak of him merely as a poet, calculated – in everything he did, ský, one of the leading figures in a publisher and an organizer, some- he was honest and uncompro- Czech rock at the present time. thing essential would be missing. mising. He was also an embodi- Another person whom Frič often Whatever he threw himself into ment of the truth that even a free cooperated with was Josef Klíč, an was grounded in the spiritual. This society needs its alternative and unconventional musician and cello was true of his books of poetry, underground. player in the Brno opera orchestra. was an integral part of his Naturally, music was never absent Frič expressed himself as the age publishing house Votobia and its from Frič’s events, and his poetry permitted - from concerts held in Brno successor Vetus Via. It was collection You are Orkney Wine first flats through his own publishing there in the Potulný dělník poet- saw the light of day in a musical house to his blog and Facebook en- ry festival, the literary and music form with the Čvachtavý lachtan tries. He died after a long illness on evenings Potulné akademie and the group. In addition to Tomáš Vtípil 14 May 2019. Ears & Wind Records label, which he its members included the accordion cooperated closely with and which #electronicELECTRONIC MUSIC music Electronic music, big beat and clubbing go together - but that’s only a small part of the truth. In fact electronic music was here long before clubbing, and thanks to enlight- ened teachers at JAMU it was doing very well indeed in Brno as early as the 1960s. That is, long before synthesizers and sequencers appeared on rock podiums, long before any old band had a computer, long before the first dance parties in glittering halls and dark cellars. Today electronic music is one of music’s most omnipresent genres: neither dance parties nor contemporary operas can do without it. Electronic big beat music has occupied reggae and swing, remixing is a daily affair, Brno artists have learned to sell instruments they built themselves to the whole world and to amplify an old knitting machine. As early as 1907 the composer Ferruccio Busoni dreamt of the future poten- tial of electronic music, but not even his imagination and genius could have anticipated what Thaddeus Cahill’s first weird experiment with an immense electrical organ would lead to one day. big beat multimedia #electronic music big beat multimedia Bullerbyne band members Luboš Mikula and Boleslav Březovský. Photo: band archives of abstract films that Piňos and the artist Chatrný created together and the later concerts of Progres 2, which made use of visual media techniques. But Progres 2 was still marked by too little electronic music and too much live playing - even though the compos- er Karel Horký, better known under the name Daniel Forró, deserted Progres for electronic music.

ELECTRONIC MUSIC BEHIND ELECTRONIC MUSIC ALL with the possible exception of purely THE IRON CURTAIN AROUND dance creations. Alternative bands only began cre- Since its beginnings in Brno, elec- ating electronic music projects in tronic music has flowed though the FIRST COMPOSITIONS, THEN the eighties; among the first were city’s musical life in several currents BIG BEAT ELECTRONIC MUSIC Něco, co hýbe ušima and Frontální that at various moments meet up, The first conceptual use of elec- porucha. However, it was difficult join forces for a while and then part tronic music was in the work of then to obtain suitable electronic ways. This still remains true, but at and . Their music instruments: they could only the same time there are growing Miloslav Ištvan Alois Piňos projects, strongly grounded intellec- be purchased, at great expense, on numbers of artists for whom elec- tually and thoughtfully constructed, the other side of the Iron Curtain tronic music is a means of expres- were far from what most people and often had to be smuggled sion no different from a guitar and imagine by the term electronic across the border. who turn to it when needed. music today. But their work back This was the case with Ser un The Brno composer, producer and then was “basic research” that their Peyjalero, which imported a Roland sound designer Tomáš Vtípil plays the students could later draw on and D-50 synthesizer from the West violin and can be heard in the streets that musical genres oriented more at the end of the 1980s. Peyjalero with the acoustic band Urband, to entertainment could be based realized that even alternative music but his electronic projects are more on. Piňos and Ištvan also benefit- needs good instruments if it wants ambitious and more audible. He says ted from the Electroacoustic Music to sound good. Even in this large of himself that he produces a racket, Studio established in the mid-sixties band, which had a brass section, clearly evident in his solo projects by Brno Radio. This stimulated the the synthesizer added a striking using electronic means to attack use of electronic music in serious element to its sound. When its underground roots. Vtípil’s spatial musical art – rock and alternative leader, Jiři Pejchal, founded a new compositions for electronic music had to wait some time for their first band, Mare Nigrum, in 1995, he and choir have been performed at the major electronic achievements. moved to full-blooded electronic Exposition of New Music festival, and But it’s hard not to see the connec- music - unlike the hermetically everything that pertains to electron- tion between electroacoustic com- existential Peyjalero, here there was ic music today appears in his work, positions that came in the wake even big beat dance music.

A MULTIMEDIA KITCHEN was actually situated in a kitch- FROM NEW YORK en, the only space available at Vašulka the time. Vašulka Kitchen Brno is Multimedia projects have always located in the city’s House of Arts: gone hand-in-hand with electron- clearly Vašulka’s ideas are taken Kitchen ic and electroacoustic music and more seriously now than was the other related musical genres and case a half century ago. sub-genres. One of the founders of electronic audiovisual art and video Vašulka Kitchen Brno was founded Brno by Tomáš Ruller, Jennifer Helia De art is the Brno native Woody Vašul- and . All three ka (born 1937). Since 2016 a Brno Felice Viktor Pantůček are active in the field of contempo- NGO named Vašulka Kitchen Brno has been promoting his work. rary art, both theoretically and in practice, as teachers, performers, Vašulka and his wife Steina found- musicians, scholars and dramaturg- ed the first Kitchen in 1971 in New es. The association focuses on the York. The name came naturally: it started to show up even on private thousands. Brno also saw the emer- radio stations. gence of rave.cz, a server dedicated to electronic and dance music. In Brno people began flocking to Mescalito, where the music was played from records by DJ Boris, SYNTHESIZERS AS one of the owners, famous for NOSTALGIA-FREE RETRO a memorable set he played from the pulpit of the city’s Red Church. Nor has Brno been immune from Discotheques flourished big time in the electronic music retro wave. the attractive new Bobycentrum. The big winner here has been the Following the latest trend, they electro-pop band Midi Lidi, which began to play from vinyls in the Fan began in 2006 and three years Favorit club, in the originally under- later was awarded a prize for music Cover of Ser Un Peyjalero’s album The ground-punk oriented Šedá litina, for the filmProtector . The more Birthday’s Ignorance. Photo: band archives in its successor the TetraHydroClub thoughtful and ethereal face of and in the rock music Mersey Club. contemporary electronic music is But Mare Nigrum was preceded The first portable sound system represented by Fiordmoss, a band a year earlier by Bullerbyne, a band collectives also appeared, the best formed by students at the Brno formed in 1994 on the ashes of the known being Vosa, which today University of Technology’s Facul- Neue Sprache project. Neue Sprache also functions as a small brewery. ty of Fine Arts. Bastl Instruments played on the borderline between produces outstanding DIY modular At the other end of the scale, noise and brutal electronic music, synthesizers: their instruments can around the beginning of the new and from its music there evolved be found in the homes of Depe- millennium Supersonic Garage what was the wildly successful che Mode’s Martin Gore and Trent and Orion Hall began organizing dance music of Bullerbyne. Back Reznor of Nine Inch Nails. # then, Brno and the whole Czech Re- huge dance parties attended by public also found themselves awash in a wave of dance parties dominat- Open air concert of electronic music ed by big beat electronic music and at Špilberk Castle. ecstasy of all kinds, and above all by DJs.

FROM CELLARS TO DISCO HALLS Songs on records were replaced by acid house, dub, breakbeat, techno and a host of other styles almost impossible for the uninitiated to dis- tinguish from one another. A certain mutual animosity prevailed among their fans – though everyone hated commercial house music, which lifework of the Vašulkas and equal- has always promoted multimedia, sounds and other non-tangible me- ly intensively on offering all manner even offering courses in electron- dia. Vašulka Kitchen Brno functions of support for artists making use ic music for kids. Other members as an archive and catalyst of art of new technologies. of Vašulka Kitchen Brno include for the future but also as a practi- Ondřej Merta of Bastl Instruments, cal demonstration of the multifac- Multimedia art and electronic music and Ivan Palacký, co-designer of eted interconnection of artists and made their appearance in Brno as the association’s premises, an ac- the contemporary world. early as the 1960s, so the Vašulka complished player on an electron- Kitchen joins a long tradition. It ically amplified knitting machine draws on people who have worked and the initiator of and participant hard to ensure that the tradition in many music projects. remained alive and continued to develop. Contemporary galleries have long since expanded their remit be- The curator Barbora Šedivá is one yond paintings, graphic works and of the co-founders of 4AM/Forum statues to include electronic music, for Architecture and Media, which SELECTED MUSICAL MOZART'S CHILDREN BRNO ORGAN FESTIVAL ACTIVITIES IN BRNO May–June May–June The Mozart’s Children project, organized Held annually since 1981, the festival by the Brno Philharmonic in collabora- features prominent Czech and inter- tion with the Smetana Basic School of national organists playing on concert JAZZFESTBRNO the Arts, aims to attract children and organs throughout Brno. March–June young people of all ages to the fantas- www.varhany.nomi.cz An international music festival featuring tic world of music. The project’s high- world-famous jazz stars and progressive light is a Gala Concert at which “young musicians from the younger generation Mozarts” - pupils at basic schools of the as well as some of what’s best on the arts - join the members of the Brno Phil- CONCENTUS MORAVIAE local Czech jazz scene. harmonic in a symphonic performance. June www.jazzfestbrno.cz www.filharmonie-brno.cz/ An annual international classical music mozartovy-deti/ festival linking Brno with the surround- ing region, it is famous for its innovative programmes. Each year the festival is EASTER FESTIVAL OF SACRED MUSIC PONAVA FEST prepared by a different dramaturge with April a strong personal vision. The festival May The Easter Festival of Sacred Music focuses alternately on early and modern is an international project, unique in A multi-genre festival focused on alter- music. , that is devoted solely to native music, jazz and classical music, www.festivalcm.cz sacred music. accompanied by a rich programme including theatre, poetry, performance www.filharmonie-brno.cz art, films and ecology. The Dark Blue Festival - mediating the world https://www.ponavafest.cz of the visually impaired. Photo: TIC BRNO

DARK BLUE FESTIVAL May An international music festival featur- ing performances by visually impaired children and young people with a rich accompanying programme. www.tmavomodry.cz

ZUŠ OPEN IN BRNO May A national happening of basic schools of the arts. Guided by their teachers, creative children - musicians, dancers, visual artists and actors - prepare a rich programme for presentation in public spaces. www.ticbrno.cz

Busking during the Brno Music Marathon. Photo: Jan Rasch

GHETTOFEST June A richly diverse street festival based on music and held in Brno’s main Roma neighbourhood. Its aim is to break down the barriers between this locality and other parts of the city of Brno. Part of the festival is held in a two-hundred- year old prison, where musicians recast the atmosphere of its unique space into soundscapes. www.ghettofest.cz

DOKOŘÁN FESTIVAL OF MUSICAL THEATRE June The Dokořán festival of musical the- atre presents a selection of the most interesting Czech and foreign musical theatre productions. www.mdb.cz BABYLONFEST September A festival highlighting the culture and traditions of ethnic minorities living in Brno. Czechs learn something about Brno neighbours who come from places around the world, while the performers can meet one another and showcase their customs and traditions. www.babylonfest.cz

JANÁČEK BRNO October This, among the most exciting music festivals in Europe, celebrates the heritage of Leoš Janáček, one of the greatest Czech composers. It presents all aspects of his work within an inter- national context. www.janacek-brno.cz

IBÉRICA FESTIVAL Judith Hill in the Metro Music Bar during the Groove Brno festival. Photo: Tino June Kratochvíl MORAVIAN AUTUMN This festival of Ibero-American cultures October offers attractions ranging from The Moravian Autumn festival is based music and dancing to South American BRNO MUSIC MARATHON on original programming and focused food: performances, concerts, film August themes. In addition to classical music, shows, workshops and food tastings. A multi-purpose music festival with it also provides for newer and contem- www.iberica.cz a unique atmosphere. It presents porary music. Established in 1966, it has interesting places in Brno’s city centre grown steadily to become a two-week through music. The festival includes the event which, since 2012, has been best Brno has to offer as well as original VAŇKOVKA FEST organized as a biennale by the Brno national and international projects. Philharmonic. June–July Programmes for the festival’s individual www.filharmonie-brno.cz/ stages are prepared by leading figures From the end of June until the end of moravsky-podzim/ July, the multi-genre Vaňkovka Fest in Brno’s musical life. presents various bands ranging from www.maratonhudby.cz ageless musical legends to talented young artists, and much more, in the MEETINGS OF NEW MUSIC PLUS splendid outdoor space between the October-December Vaňkovka and Fait Galleries. ŠPILBERK INTERNATIONAL MUSIC FESTIVAL An international music festival featuring www.vankovkafest.cz remarkable concerts from the field of August contemporary acoustic and electroacous- A traditional summer festival held under tic music and multimedia projects. The UPROSTŘED FESTIVAL the stars on the premises of Špilberk festival is organized by Sdružení Q and by Castle. It offers a rather wide range of the Faculty of Music, Janáček Academy June–August genres, including classical music con- of the Performing Arts, Brno. A festival animating the streets and certs, classical and pop music fusions www.setkavaninovehudby.jamu.cz squares of Brno’s city centre during as well as broadcasts on a big screen the summer months. It offers a varied with quality sound of concerts featur- programme of music and theatre perfor- ing international stars from the world’s mances, dancing and other events. great stages. GROOVE BRNO www.festivaluprostred.cz www.filharmonie-brno.cz October–December An international groove and funky fes- tival with strong international participa- INTERNATIONAL GUITAR FESTIVAL BRNO INTERNATIONAL FOLKLORE tion, it presents a wide selection of top performers in jazz and related genres. August FESTIVAL www.groovebrno.cz This festival focuses on the classical August guitar and brings prominent guitar This festival has been held every year players to Brno. The festival also offers since 1990 at the end of the summer guitar courses and an international holidays. It presents folklore ensem- competition. bles from Brno as well as other parts of www.guitarfestival.cz the country and features international guest performers. www.folklornet.cz/mff Brno awash in colour during the pre-Lent CHOIR OF BRNO Carnival festivities. Photo: TIC BRNO / year-round Michal Růžička The Czech Philharmonic Choir of Brno represents the best in the field of choral AMADEUS art in the Czech and the international November context. The choir organizes a subscrip- tion series and has many other concerts Amadeus is an international Mozart throughout the year. competition for young pianists under the age of 11. Its aim is to introduce and www.cfsbrno.cz support talented young pianists from across the Czech Republic as well as abroad. The competition itself and the concert given by the winners are held in ENSEMBLE OPERA DIVERSA Besední dům. year-round www.amadeusbrno.cz Ensemble Opera Diversa is an ensemble of professional musicians and singers focusing on innovative music and theatre projects. Founded in 1999, Ensemble Op- EXPOSITION OF NEW MUSIC era Diversa now offers the public around no fixed date thirty performances and productions each year. This festival mainly offers new possi- bilities to express music as well as new www.operadiversa.cz aspects of personal, even extreme, ex- pression. The festival was established in BACHA NA MOZARTA! 1987 and since 2012 has been organized by the Brno Philharmonic without any year-round ETNO BRNO FESTIVAL IN STARÁ PEKÁRNA fixed date within the year. The only early music subscription www.filharmonie-brno.cz series in Moravia. Since 2012 the Czech year-round Ensemble Baroque has performed major A festival offering current approaches cantatas, oratorios, operas and sym- and trends in European and local world phonies from the Baroque and Classicist music, music on the borderline of tradi- BRNO PHILHARMONIC periods interpreted in a historically tional folk music, modern folk and ethnic year-round authentic style and played on period music. The festival presents the best of instruments. The Brno Philharmonic offers ten differ- local and to some extent Central Europe- ent subscription series including both www.bachanamozarta.cz an ethnic music. classical music as well as jazz and world www.starapekarna.cz music. It also organizes several festivals: Moravian Autumn, the Easter Festival BARBARA MARIA WILLI PRESENTS... of Sacred Music, the Exposition of New Music, and an open-air festival at Špil- year-round HAUSOPERA berk Castle. The oldest early music subscription year-round www.filharmonie-brno.cz series in the Czech Republic, launched A unique Brno site-specific opera in 2002. Its chamber concerts are held project for staging operas whose music in the former refectory of the Brothers and librettos are closely linked to the Hospitallers monastery, with its splendid unusual Brno locations where they are BRNO NATIONAL THEATRE – OPERA acoustics. The programmes prepared by performed. Barbara Willi feature top local and inter- COMPANY www.hausopera.cz year-round national artists. The series is noted for its historically informed performances, The opera company of the Brno National innovative programming and the linkage Theatre premieres several new produc- of early with contemporary music. tions each season on its home stage OPERA NA CESTÁCH in the Janáček Theatre. Its repertoire www.cema-music.com year-round includes not only major opera titles but Opera na cestách (Opera on the Move) also works by contemporary composers. first appeared on the Czech cultural It pays special tribute to Leoš Janáček BRNO CONTEMPORARY ORCHESTRA scene in 2012. As the first travelling opera every two years through the Janáček project in the Czech Republic it aims to year-round Brno festival. make the opera world available even in www.ndbrno.cz The BCO mostly presents Czech music areas distant from opera houses and to of the 20th and 21st centuries. The introduce the genre to the general public. ensemble prepares compact thematic series of concerts as well as original BRNO MUNICIPAL THEATRE projects such as connecting music with JAZZ BRNO year-long other arts (films, the fine arts, architec- ture, dance). year-round A repertory theatre with its own or- An international music festival offering chestra, the Brno Municipal Theatre www.bcorchestra.cz jazz and blues evenings in the Stará focuses on drama and music, particu- Pekárna club. Although the festival larly stage musicals and premieres of labels its two parts “spring” and “au- contemporary Czech works. It organizes tumn”, the concerts are in fact spread the Dokořan musical theatre festival. out throughout the whole year. www.mdb.cz OTHER MUSICAL ACTIVITIES KAMENKA OPEN JAKUBÁK FEST June June–August BRNO CARNIVAL A three-day music festival with an A music festival that animates the February accompanying theatre programme. It is square around St James’s Church during held on a picturesque meadow above the summer. The programme features The Brno Carnival is organized by the folk- the Kamenná neighbourhood. concerts, small theatre productions, lore group Šafrán Brno in cooperation with stand-up acts, busking and happenings TIC BRNO. The day before Ash Wednesday, by the Bolek Polívka Theatre. when Lent with its fasting and abstinence begins, local folklore ensembles organize EVENINGS WITH ONDRÁŠ Carnival festivities and costumed revellers June parade through the centre of Brno. PROART FESTIVAL Summer evenings in June are enlivened www.safranbrno.cz by the open-air performances of the July Military Folk Ensemble Ondráš, held An international multi-genre festival of in the courtyards of the New City Hall workshops focused on dancing, singing, and Špilberk Castle. The whole ensem- acting, photography and other arts. BRNO BEATFEST ble takes part in the dance and music www.proart-festival.cz February performances. Beatfests are special events in Brno, www.vusondras.cz presenting the legends of (not only) Brno rock, partly forgotten and revived F SCÉNA bands, new names as well as top music August bands. The festival is held in the Semi- OLD BRNO MUSIC FESTIVITIES Summer thematic evenings organized by lasso centre. June the Jánošík Brno folk ensemble. Leading www.beatpoint.cz The festival takes place at the Augus- folk groups from across the Czech Re- tinian Monastery in Old Brno. It ignores public perform in the city centre, each genres and brings together classical displaying the variety and beauty of the music, film music, southern Moravian folklore of its own region. PORTA – BRNO DISTRICT ROUND poetry set to music as well as modern April genres. The Prah Café hosts the public district www.starobrnenskehudebnislavnosti.cz CHRISTMAS IN BRNO round of the oldest Czech festival focused November–December on folk, country and blues, with the win- ners going on to the Porta finale. In recent years, Christmastime in the BRNO COUNTRY FOUNTAIN Brno city centre has featured not only www.porta-festival.cz June good food but also a rich and high-qual- ity music programme. A music festival held on the outdoor stage at the Old Brewery in Řečkovice. The music www.brnenskevanoce.cz BRNO REGION DANCES AND SINGS focuses on pop, country, folk and rock. May www.countryradio.cz A festival of traditional folklore ensem- bles and bands from the Brno region. at the . Photo: Marek Olbrzymek www.ticbrno.cz

KRÁKOR June Established in 1998, Krákor is an alter- native to commercial “culture” and the excesses of big festivals. There are no genre limitations; underground is the common denominator. Great emphasis is put on creators themselves and their own works; the festival includes theatre productions, authors’ readings, films and exhibitions. www.spodniproudy.cz

More information on music events in Brno

www.mestohudby.cz ← www.leosjanacek.eu ← www.gotobrno.cz ← BORIS KLEPAL done. Soon after, he saw Smetana’s years - though of course it was far The Bartered Bride with his mum. from being a one-man show. He also He liked the piece, though what he launched a blog called The Diary of remembered most was Kecal, who One Who Disappeared and headed kept singing “it’s all settled” over the Brno - City of Music web portal and over. Thanks to his mother’s for three years. habit, he then continued going to At present, he writes for the daily the opera regularly and gladly. Hospodářské noviny, Aktualně.cz Later, his love of music led him to and HIS Voice, collaborates with the talk about it so much that they Czech Philharmonic and the weekly asked him to write an article for magazine Respekt, and works as was born on 3 October 1966, a year Literarni noviny. So he started the editor-in-chief of the Magazine and a day after the Janáček Thea- writing, and since there was such of the Academy of Classical Music. tre was opened in Brno. He probably a desperate shortage of people He has to write quite a lot, which came into this world because his who could write about music, he he considers divine retribution for parents loved each other back then. was soon noticed by the editors of all the essays he didn’t hand in at When he was five, his mother taught the music review Opus Musicum. secondary school. He’s a co-founder him to go to the Janáček Theatre. Soon he also took on the technical of the Trochu nižši C4 prize, which is And his grandmother started teach- editing, which ended up with him given annually for the best piece of ing him to play the piano, which he writing, producing and reading this contemporary Czech music and has still considers the right thing to have distinguished periodical for several so far been awarded twice.

#Brno city of music

Publisher: TIC BRNO Radnická 365/2, 602 00 Brno www.ticbrno.cz www.mestohudby.cz Issued within the framework of the city of Brno’s membership in the UNESCO TIC BRNO is supported financially by the City of Brno

Author: Boris Klepal Graphic design, typesetting: Barbara Zemčík Collages: yvans Translation: Don Sparling, Nora Hodečková Conception, realization: David Dittrich, Martina Výrková Editing, proofs, photo research: Pocket media s.r.o. Printing: POINT CZ, s.r.o. Published December 2019 UNESCO Creative City of Music → ADELAIDE ALMATY AMARANTE AMBON AUCKLAND BOGOTA BRNO ESSAOUIRA FRUTILLAR HANNOVER IDANHA-A-NOVA KANSAS KAZAŇ KINGSTON KIRŞEHIR LEIRIA LLIRIA MEDELLIN METZ MORELIA NORKOPPING PESARO PORT OF PRAIA SALVADOR SANANDAJ SEVILLE TONGYEONG VALLEDUPAR VALPARAÍSO VARANASI VESZPRÉM VRANJE ADELAIDE ALMATY AMARANTE AMBON AUCKLAND BOGOTA BOLOGNA BRAZZAVILLE BRNO DAEGU ESSAOUIRA FRUTILLAR GHENT GLASGOW HAMAMATSU HANNOVER HAVANA CHENNAI IDANHA-A-NOVA KANSAS KATOWICE KAZAŇ KINGSTON KINSHASA KIRŞEHIR LEIRIA LIVERPOOL LLIRIA MANNHEIM MEDELLIN METZ MORELIA NORKOPPING PESARO PRAIA RAMALLAH SALVADOR SANANDAJ SANTO DOMINGO SEVILLE TONGYEONG VALLEDUPAR VALPARAÍSO VARANASI VESZPRÉM VRANJE ADELAIDE ALMATY AMARANTE AMBON AUCKLAND BOGOTA BOLOGNA BRAZ- ZAVILLE BRNO DAEGU ESSAOUIRA FRUTILLAR GHENT GLASGOW HAMAMATSU HANNOVER HAVANA CHENNAI IDANHA-A-NOVA KANSAS KATOWICE KAZAŇ KINGSTON KINSHASA KIRŞEHIR LEIRIA LIVERPOOL LLIRIA MANNHEIM MEDELLIN METZ MORELIA NORKOPPING PESARO PORT OF SPAIN PRAIA RAMALLAH SALVADOR SANANDAJ SANTO DOMINGO SEVILLE TONGYEONG VALLEDUPAR VALPARAÍSO VARANASI VESZPRÉM VRANJE ADELAIDE ALMATY AMARANTE AMBON AUCKLAND BOGOTA BOLOGNA BRAZZAVILLE BRNO DAEGU ESSAOUIRA FRUTILLAR GHENT GLASGOW HAMAMATSU HANNOVER HAVANA CHENNAI IDANHA-A-NOVA KANSAS KATOWICE KAZAŇ KINGSTON KINSHASA KIRŞEHIR LEIRIA LIVERPOOL LLIRIA MANNHEIM MEDELLIN METZ MORELIA NORKOPPING PESARO PORT OF SPAIN PRAIA RAMALLAH SALVADOR SANANDAJ SANTO DOMINGO SEVILLE TONGYEONG VALLEDUPAR VALPARAÍSO VARANASI VESZPRÉM VRANJE ADELAIDE ALMATY AMARANTE AMBON AUCKLAND BOGOTA BOLOGNA BRAZZAVILLE BRNO DAEGU ESSAOUIRA FRUTILLAR GHENT GLASGOW HAMAMATSU HANNOVER HAVANA CHENNAI IDANHA-A-NOVA KANSAS KATOWICE KAZAŇ KINGSTON KINSHASA KIRŞEHIR LEIRIA LIVERPOOL LLIRIA MANNHEIM MEDELLIN METZ MORELIA NORKOPPING PESARO PORT OF SPAIN PRAIA RAMALLAH SALVADOR SANANDAJ SANTO DOMINGO SEVILLE TONGYEONG VALLEDUPAR VALPARAÍSO VARANASI VESZPRÉM VRANJE ADELAIDE ALMATY AMARANTE AMBON AUCKLAND BOGOTA BOLOGNA BRAZZAVILLE BRNO DAEGU ESSAOUIRA FRUTILLAR GHENT GLASGOW HAMAMATSU HANNOVER HAVANA CHENNAI KANSAS KATOWICE KAZAŇ KINGSTON KINSHASA KIRŞEHIR LLIRIA MANNHEIM MEDELLIN METZ MORELIA NORKOPPING