President Petr Pavel will visit the Czech Philharmonic concert in New York on December 5

Prague – On December 5, President Petr Pavel will visit the Czech Philharmonic (ČF) concert, which will take place as part of the Czech Week at the famous Carnegie Hall in New York. Czech Week, which is the highlight of the Year of Czech Music celebrations, will start with a concert of young talents in the Czech National Building on December 2. The performances, which will take place in the Carnegie Hall concert hall, in the Czech National Building in Manhattan and in Times Square, will feature the ČF, the Prague Philharmonic Choir under the direction of chief choirmaster Lukáš Vasilek, and the Pavel Haas Quartet. At the concert on December 5, the ČF and its chief conductor and music director Semjon Byčkov, in the presence of President Pavel, will receive the American Dvořák Society Award for outstanding contribution to Czech music. ČTK was informed about this today by ČF spokesman Luděk Březina.

“Czech Week at Carnegie Hall is a rare opportunity and an extraordinary moment for the entire Czech culture, which confirms its firm place in the international field, and for me one of the most beautiful forms of promoting Czech culture and our country in the world,” said Petr Pavel. The President will arrive in New York from a working visit to Australia and New Zealand. He granted patronage to Czech Week and also accepted a role in continuation spot Don’t forget.

The concert of young talents, which will symbolically open the whole week in the Czech National Building, will offer a program consisting of compositions by Wynton Marsalis, Edward Elgar and Antonín Dvořák. In line with its long-term vision of talent development, the ČF invited four students from London’s Royal Academy of Music and four graduates of the US National Student Orchestra at Carnegie Hall to participate in the Czech Week at Carnegie Hall. They, as well as members of the Orchestral Academy of the Czech Philharmonic, will perform both at the concert on December 2 and at all three philharmonic concerts in Carnegie Hall.

Part of the first ČF concert, during which the symphonic poems Vyšehrad, Vltava and Šárka by Bedřich Smetana will be performed, will also be available to the audience online at website ČF December 4 from 8:00 p.m. The ČF, along with the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonics, are among only three orchestras that have been given the opportunity to perform at Carnegie Hall three times this year. The program will feature instrumental concerts by Antonín Dvořák, performed by cellist Yo-Yo Ma, violinist Gil Shaham and pianist Daniil Trifonov. In addition to Dvořák, the first half of Smetana’s My Country, Symphony No. 5 by Gustav Mahler and the Glagolitic Mass by Leoš Janáček, in which the Prague Philharmonic Choir will also join the ČF.

ČF performed nineteen times to the American audience at Carnegie Hall. The first time was in 1965 with Karel Ančerl, the last time in 2018 with Semjon Byčkov. The Prague Philharmonic Choir is also returning to Carnegie Hall after six years. This year, however, for the first time in its ninety-year history, it will perform in a separate a cappella concert.

Czech Week at Carnegie Hall this year is also complemented by a number of accompanying programs. The Czech National Building, the seat of the Czech Center and the Consulate General of the Czech Republic in New York, will host a film festival that will offer the American premiere of a new biopic of Smetana, documentaries about Jiří Bělohlávek, Semjon Byčkov and the Čhavorenge project of Ida Kelarová. Until the end of the year, you can also visit Štěpánka Stein and Venda Mlejnská’s photo exhibition entitled Allegro Forte: Faces of Czech Music.

USA CR music Pavel Czech Philharmonic PHOTO

Source: www.ceskenoviny.cz