New relationship with
Janacek Philharmonic.

18 July 2023

In September 2023 I will return to Ostrava to conduct the Janacek Philharmonic for several recording sessions.

The orchestra was founded in 1929 as a radio orchestra and is one of around 20 professional orchestras in the Czech Republic. It is home to The Leoš Janáček International Music Festival. In February this year, I recorded with the orchestra for a future release. As we were in the throes of the Czech Philharmonic Woodwind Orchestra Funding Campaign, I decided to hold back news of this.

The Janacek Philharmonic are going through an exciting development stage with a new concert hall being built and due to open in 2026. I was the first to use their temporary concert hall for a recording, a refit of a former cinema, Kino Vesmir. With such a hiatus, it seemed slightly crazy to be proposing a recording project. But all our fears were laid to rest with a visit in early November 2022.

A large space seating over 400 people, the temporary hall has had a multi-million-pound (or should I say Koruna!) makeover including acoustic treatment and modernisation of a very Soviet 1950s looking building. It’s a great space and whilst only a temporary hall, it is well equipped for recordings and concerts. So last November I arrived in Ostrava and hurried myself from the airport to a concert at Kino Vesmir that evening – the first live performance in the temporary space. There was a great buzz for the opening of the hall – the red carpet was literally rolled out! There was a very eager looking orchestral manager in the wings with a programme of Prokofiev’s Sinfonia Concertante for Cello and Orchestra in E minor, op 125 followed by some home ground for the orchestra – the Symphony No.7 by Dvořák. I think its true to say no one plays Dvořák like Czech orchestras!

One thing I had noticed in particular was the audience. The orchestra are clearly well respected and supported. The concertgoers were dressed in their finery, making me feel a little underdressed, something which hadn’t even crossed my mind until I was there. The appreciation they showed at the conclusion of the concert was charming. It showed me what music meant to them and the stark contrast I sometimes experience back at home.  

Right now in the UK, musicians (and indeed all those in the arts) are facing a difficult time with public resources stretched as well as personal finances. The pandemic had a disastrous effect on the music business which was already fractured pre-2020. With the current UK Government announcing the moderation of degree courses based on financial return, arts and humanities degrees will surely be hit the hardest. I for one don’t want to live in a world without art and music. A musician will never be able to compete financially with a builder for example, but our jobs are no less important. As a young undergraduate in the noughties, things were changing in the music business. Older funding models were becoming harder to sustain but on a positive note, there was growing diversity. As we now look to the future, I feel it is imperative that we diversify our ways of thinking and working. Funding models which used to work are becoming harder to be successful with. I know that can be a painful admission but for the sake of the future in the music business, I’d urge all colleagues to look at new ways of managing projects.

Some twenty years on from my undergraduate studies, the musical landscape is radically different but the amazing individuals who make up the community haven’t changed one bit. People are just as enthusiastic, committed and engaged with their ideas, projects and passions.

It’s exciting to be building good working relationships with several Czech orchestras. Whilst there is an obvious cost-effectiveness of working abroad, there is a great passion in the playing and I’m just so pleased to be getting some interesting British projects off the ground with friends and colleagues. Feel free to get in touch if you want to find out more or just kick around some ideas.