Our choir is celebrating 70 years of existence this year. To honour this special occasion, we would like to release our new CD with contemporary Czech sacral music by Petr Eben and Zdeněk Lukáš. Please, support our campaign, thank you!
Author: VUS UK
All or nothing. Project finished on Apr 29, 2018 at 10:03.
Charles University Choir in Prague (VUS UK) is an eminent Czech non-professional choir ensemble composed primarily of students, graduates, and employees of the Charles University and other Prague universities and colleges. It was founded as far back as in the year 1948 and thus it is the oldest Czech academic choir. The composer Jan Tausinger became one of the founders of the choir and at the same time its first choirmaster. Many renowned conductors and choirmasters led the choir during its long history (e.g. Jiří Kout, Lubomír Mátl, Oliver Dohnányi, Miriam Němcová, Jiří Kratochvíl nebo Jaroslav Brych). Since September 1999, Jakub Zicha (*1974), a graduate of the Prague Conservatoire in the branch viola and conducting, has been the main choirmaster and an art director.
Our anniversary concert season commenced in September 2017. Apart from the jubilee concert on 11 May 2018 in Prague´s most prestigious concert hall (Rudolfinum) we have recorded a new CD with contemporary Czech sacral music (composers Petr Eben and Zdeněk Lukáš). There is a wide range of rewards to be received for your pledges – from a Thank you on our website, tickets to the celebratory concert, the new CD, placing an advert in our concert programmes – and all the above in various combinations. For those of you living in Prague we also offer Irish dancing lessons, excursions to the Prague Botanical Garden, wall climbing or National Technical Museum in Prague behind-the-scenes tour. And for the most generous donors we offer to arrange a private concert.
Will you support us?
The new CD's instrumentalists are all first-rate musicians – the organist Jan Kalfus, the percussionist Jan Linhart and members of one of the leading Czech orchestras – PKF - Prague Philharmonia.
The new CD's sound is in the good hands of the music director Pavel Kunčar and the sound master Jakub Stratílek.
So what will you hear when you buy our new CD?
P. Eben: Prague Te Deum 1989
P. Eben: Ubi caritas et amor (1964)
P. Eben: Missa Adventus et quadragesimae (1952)
Z. Lukáš: Requiem per coro misto, op. 252 (1992)
Z. Lukáš: Prayer of Ghana Christians, op. 59 (1968)
Z. Lukáš: Te Deum laudamus, op. 311 (2001)
Z. Lukáš: Dona nobis pacem, op. 350 (2007)
(more information about both composers is to be found below)
This is of course not our first CD so listen to our previous recordings:
We have recorded this CD in honour of two very unique composers and extraordinary figures - Zdeněk Lukáš and Petr Eben, who both passed away ten years ago. While they had a lot in common, there are many things that distinguish one from the other. They both composed sacral and secular pieces, and they were brilliant in such a difficult field as folk music arrangement. Their music language, however, is completely different, as were their personalities. When you say „Czech vocal works of the second half of the 20th century“, you have to mention these two composers at the same time. Their music is famous both in the Czech Republic and abroad, their pieces performed by professional and amateur ensembles alike. We believe that our new recording is unique for two main reasons – one, the music itself – the artistic level of the selected pieces is at the very edge of feasibility in non-professional environment. And secondly, we show the sacral works by P. Eben and Z. Lukáš in their full extent of the time scope – from pieces composed in their youth to the very last compositions.
While we love performing in many of the renowned concert halls like Dvorak´s Hall of Rudolfinum or Smetana Hall of the Municipal House, we have also repeatedly appeared on the stage of the National Theatre in Prague in several theatre performances (e.g. Naši furianti (Our Swaggerers), directed by J.A. Pitínský with 219 repeats; Bláznivý den aneb Figarova svatba (Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais); and most recently Faust, directed by Jan Frič - premiered on 15 March 2018).
Apart from regular concerts in Prague and other places in the Czech Republic, we often perform abroad. Here are some of our superlatives:
the easternmost place visited: China (2011)
the westernmost place visited: Powell River – Canada (1998)
the southernmost place visited: Mexico City – Mexico (2002)
the northernmost place visited: Reykholt – Island (1999)
In the past few years, we have become a part of the famous Lord of the Rings IN CONCERT project and we have toured mainly Germany several times, but also performed in concerts in Prague O2 Arena.
We hope that all that has been written here has convinced you to make a pledge in our campaign. We sincerely thank you for your support.
For more details of VUS UK programme and life, please visit our webpage.
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