Children to Children Modern Children Perform Historic Opera for Children Imagine that right now you’re huddled in the middle of war in one of the world trouble-spots – Mali, Syria, Gaza – or even that you’re a teenaged girl in Pakistan, shot just because you try to go to school. How would you cope? Here in the Czech Republic, in the Nazi work camp known as Terezín in 1938, children…
Tag: Czech Museum of Music
And a Monkey Played the Cello
And a Monkey Played the Cello Museum Exhibit Explains How Organ Grinders (and Others) Influenced Czech Music Olympics? Rock festivals? Sports bar? Jazz on the river? What’s your favorite way to spend a lazy August afternoon or evening? A hundred years or so ago, none of these options existed. So people from farms, villages, and cities alike all flocked to their local fair, whenever *a traveling troupe of entertainers hit…
Wednesday, June 6, 2012: A 30th (or 50th) Jubilee
Quattro Corde’s 30th (or 50th) Year Jubilee Prague is rightfully known as a City of Music. Its roots run very deep. And that’s why Opus Osm tries to dig a little under its rich surface of popular venues, well-publicized performances, and top artists, to also bring to light some very well qualified, but lesser known, classical artists. Such is the case with the Quattro Corde orchestra which is celebrating a…
Monday, June 4, 2012: The Berg’s Open Challenge
The Berg’s Open Challenge If you’ve ever tried to play the guitar, violin, or even a child’s plastic flute, the recorder, you know the term “open” note. It’s the sound you get when you take all the fingers of your fingering hand off the instrument, and just let it make its basic sound. Beginners love the open notes, because they’re the ones you can always count on: strong, pure, impossible…
Monday, February 13, 2012: Inside Fairyland
Inside Dvořák’s Fairyland It’s the last, cold day of January, and the 23 wiggly, giggly kids from the Dolní Slivno Elementary School don’t know it yet, but in a few minutes they will magically transform into wood sprites, water goblins, and an orchestra to perform scenes from Dvořák’s opera Rusalka. It starts with a quick tour through the museum exhibition on Antonín Dvořák: the students, age 9 to 11, strum…
Friday, October 14,2011:Duty Calls
When Duty Calls: Meet Mr Měchura It’s such a pity that Leopold Měchura died in 1870. He would have been such an interesting character to know personally. His father was a lawyer, and so possibly Leopold was expected – or pressured – to follow in the same type of profession. He did, studying law and philosophy, and music, in Prague. He became a provincial magistrate in the town of Otín…
Wednesday, Sept 28, 2011:Dances on Guitar
Dances on Guitar Look at the Prague concert posters around the city these days and you’re sure to find Dvořák’s Slavonic Dances on almost every program. The music is beautiful, but performed almost everywhere, almost constantly. That’s why it’s so refreshing to hear the work performed by the small orchestra known as Archioni Plus. With just 12 instruments, including a piano and even a guitar, the group of so-called amateur…
Monday, September 26, 2011: An American Story
An American Story On September 15, 1892, Antonín Dvořák set sail to the New World with his wife Anna and two of their children to assume the post of the director of the National Conservatory in New York. But not everybody knows the full story of this relocation. Surprisingly, the great Czech composer wasn’t really keen on the idea of leaving his cozy, Central European home, and refused the first…
Thursday, September 15, 2011:Adaptation
Adaptation Scissors, coffee mugs, door handles. Knives, even pens and pencils. They’re all designed for the right-handed. Fortunately, these days no leftie is getting left behind. The world is adapting. Humanitarian regulations require designers to adapt everyday objects to be user-friendly for everyone, including people with various disabilities – even being left-handed. (Never mind that we lefties are said to be generally slightly more intelligent and creative than righties.) You…
Thursday, June 9, 2011:Playing (with) Dvořák
Playing (with) Dvořák This is a description of the newly-opened exhibit which was described by Opus Osm in our “What’s Coming?” article May 5. A new exhibit opened yesterday at the Czech Museum of Music. It’s what all exhibitions should be like. Why? Because if you want to get your hands on interactive, multi-media displays as a way to get drawn into Dvořák — the man, the music — you…
Thursday, May 5, 2011: What’s Coming??
“He was the most loyal trainspotter … Whenever he could, he fled his paternal duties, observed trains, waved, and wrote down the names of the steam engines. After some time, engine drivers noticed the small childlike figure, waved back, or even hooted in greeting.” –Vratislav Šimůnek, station master, Kralupy nad Vltavou You might wonder what a steam locomotive is doing on our Home page. You might wonder why we have…
