How do you write a piece of music for a two-stringed, plastic instrument that looks like a mixture of ironing board and spaceship? Composer Jakub Rataj and his composition teacher Hanuš Bartoň explain… “Before I started to think about writing a piece for the raketon,” Jakub Rataj tells Opus Osm, “I had a concept for a composition for a solo instrument and orchestra: The solo instrument gives a musical impulse…
Tag: Mary Matz
Visits Inside the Spotlight
Those of us who go to performances and always sit on the dark side of the hall have a unique chance to share the warmth of the spotlight. A little. Prague offers three annual events that are billed like regular performances. But after going to them, you might have noticed that these were somehow just a little different … special … with a unique kind of warmth. That’s because the…
A Black Belt in Music
Do You Deserve a Black Belt in Music Appreciation? You could, thanks to the Japanese “belt” system of rewarding expertise. The online computer game site for music training, Theta Music Trainer, rewards digital color-belts according to players’ scores. Each player begins with a white belt (Levels 0-9) and progresses through nine more belt colors by clearing game levels, all the way to the black belt (Level 700+). All the games…
30 Looks at 69.857142857
The Producers of Edge, all in their 30s, work with the cast of 69.857142857 – that’s the average age of the seven performers. Krzysztof Raczkowski, a ballet dancer/actor, is the youngest one. He’s only 59. At the other end of the age scale, Martin Bálik, a set designer and narrator, is 84. And the rest of the lively cast of still young, so-called “old agers” are professionally-trained dancers with long…
Youth Leader
He wanted to conduct, so he formed an orchestra. He’s 25. If you see Chuhei Iwasaki walking down the street with his friends, he looks like any other lively Czech student, except he’s rather slender, and from Japan. Before a concert at The Dvořák Museum, he goofs around with his friends, straightening one boy’s necktie, joking with the girls, checking his mobile and stashing it in a pocket. But when…
Orpheus and Eurydice: Keeping It Simple
‘It is ridiculous to prolong the sentence “I love you” with a hundred notes when nature has restricted it to three.’ That’s what librettist Ranieri Calzabigi (1714-1795) believed, and his colleague, Czech composer Christoph Willibald Gluck (1714-1787) agreed. Together, they became style-makers of the opera world by eventually throwing out old, fussy, and complicated conventions. The beginnings of this trend can be seen in their opera Orpheus and Eurydice, which…
Play with the Dream Team
Her dream of a weekend for all ages, styles, and abilities of harp players will come true for teacher Jana Műllerová Jouzová Apr 12-14. “After many years of teaching and organizing lots of concerts only for my pupils and students,” Mrs Jouzová tells Opus Osm, “I decided finally to try to fulfill my long-time dream to start a group meeting and concert for young harp players from all across the…
Where to Hear Dvořák (and More) — Free
How many CDs, DVDs, MP3s, and music books are in your library? This place has 220,000, and you can use them all. “We lend books about music, of course,” says Jitka Roškotová, “but you can also borrow librettos, magazines, 157,000 music scores, cassettes, CDs, and DVDs.” Ms Roškotová is the Municipal Library of Prague’s foreign relations officer. She continues, “You can also access our MP3 and Blu-Ray collection on site…
Who Is the Most Powerful?
The Prague Chamber Ballet settles the question. Who Is the Most Powerful in the World? The answer is supposed to be love, actually. But with the Prague Chamber Ballet’s (Pražský Komorní Balet) current production of this children’s tale, a strong case could be made for “art” as well. Consider: The music is by Bohuslav Martinů, written just before he left Prague for Paris in 1923. It’s conducted by Jiří Bělohlavek,…
Seznamte se: Jiří Teml
Začal jako ekonom, poté se stal rozhlasovým hudebním dramaturgem; každopádně tento rezidenční skladatel FOK si našel svoji jedinečnou hudební řeč. „Moje hudební kariéra nebyla vždy snadná a přímočará,“ přiznává Jiří Teml v programu Symfonického orchestru hl. m. Prahy FOK. „Naopak se odvíjela poměrně zvláštní cestou.“ Vystudovaný ekonom pracující v oboru začal navštěvovat soukromé hodiny hudební teorie a hudební kompozice, na které nakonec docházel déle než 10 let. Jako u mnoha úspěšných skladatelů…
Meet Mr Teml
He started out as an economist, then became a radio music producer; but this FOK composer-in-residence has found his own unique musical voice. “My musical career has not always been easy and straight-forward,” admits Jiří Teml, writing in the Prague Symphony Orchestra (FOK) program book. “On the contrary, it has followed a rather unusual path.” Trained and working in the field of economics, he began taking private music theory and…
A Village Only of Girls
An eerie, 400 year old legend premieres as a ballet Thursday and Friday at The National Theatre. “The legend describes a village with almost only young girls, and no other people,” says Lukáš Trpišovský. “On the other hand,” he continues, “there are boys – enchanted boys – hidden in the woods.” Mr Trpišovský is the co-director of the new ballet The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (Krabat, or Čarodějův Učeň). It’s based on…
Much More than Nothing
What Happens When You Don’t Get the Grant? Sometimes, Much More than Nothing … “Originally, we planned to do a ‘normal’ dance project, with six to eight weeks for planning and rehearsals,” explains Karolina Hejnová. “But then we didn’t get the subsidy.” She’s telling Opus Osm how the collaborative contemporary dance piece Much More than Nothing was nearly finished before it started. But its creators, the dance group Me-Sa and…
M is For … (and Win Free Tickets)
420People and The Berg prove that M is not only for music, but also for movement – a captivating mélange for viewers. The mid-December premiere of M is For … offered audiences a quirky but fascinating early Christmas gift when the Berg Orchestra teamed up with dance ensemble 420People. And now this team is wrapping up their package to be opened again on Feb 20, just after Valentine’s Day. The…
57 strun: Když se harfa setká s kytarou
Jak díky nedostatku volných tříd vzniklo duo The Czech translation of an article published Jan 31 on Opus Osm „Potkaly jsme se asi před třemi lety na chodbě HAMU (Hudební fakulty Akademie múzických umění),“ vypráví pro Opus Osm studentka harfy Hana Hrachovinová. „Nebyly volné třídy, a tak jsem seděla před harfovou třídou a hrála Bachovu Suitu e moll. A Lucka (kytaristka Lucie Šťavíková) šla okolo – kytarová třída je hned…
Strings and Pegs: Where Harp Meets Guitar
How Crowded Music Academy Practice Rooms Led to New Duo “We met about three years ago, in the corridor at HAMU (the Academy of Music),” harp student Hana Hrachovinová tells Opus Osm. “There were no empty practice rooms so I was sitting in front of the harp room door, playing Bach’s Suite in E Minor. And Lucka (guitarist Lucie Št’avíková) went by — the guitar room is just next door…
