Ostrava's Janáček Philharmonic Orchestra is among the five leading symphony
orchestras of the Czech Republic. Many conductors have contributed to the
orchestra's artistic development, among them Serge Baudo, Roberto Benzi,
Zdenek Macal, Charles Mackerras, Vaslav Neumann, Libor Pesek, and Christian Arming,
to name a few. The orchestra's current Chief Conductor is Theodore Kuchar.
Throughout its 50-year existence, JPO has been a strong advocate of contemporary
music. Since 1997, it regularly performs under Petr Kotik, including large-scale
new music events such as the 4-hour concert at the festival of Music of Extended
Duration in Prague in 1997, a program which included performances of 103 by John
Cage and Four Meditations by Pauline Oliveros with Oliveros as a soloist. JPO
has also performed several concerts of music for 3 orchestras since 1999, as part
of the project "Music in Space - Compositions for 3 Orchestras," conducted by
Christian Arming, Petr Kotik, Zsolt Nagy and Petr Vronský. Performances include
the Prague Spring Festival in 1999, Warsaw Autumn in 2000 and MaerzMusik in 2004.
JPO's repertoire of pieces for 3 orchestras includes Karlheinz Stockhausen's
Gruppen, along with works by Alvin Lucier, Earle Brown, Martin Smolka, Petr Kotik,
Olga Neuwirth, Christian Wolff, and Phill Niblock. Other composers who have worked
with the JPO include Somei Satoh, Tristan Murail, Maria de Alvear, and Roscoe
Mitchell.
Recently, under Petr Kotik, Zsolt Nagy and Christian Arming the JPO performed,
to critical acclaim, large-scale works by Edgard Varese and Tristan Murail along
with Morton Feldman's Coptic Light and Violin and Orchestra with the renown
Czech-Swiss violinist Hana Kotková. JPO has recorded several works of new music
on CD, including 103 by John Cage for the Asphodel label (San Francisco),
as well as orchestral works by Somei Satoh and Phill Niblock's Disseminate
for Mode Records (New York).
Dům kultury města Ostravy - the seat of the Janáček
Philharmonic Orchestra includes a large concert hall with flexible seating, and
several rehearsal studios.
