Kotík @ 80 – concert in Ostrava and Prague
The programs of both concerts include compositions Christian Wolff, Bernhard Lang, Any Sokolović, Petra Cígler, Petra Bakly, Phil Niblock, Daniela Skály AND Anny Heflin, composers from a range of festivals organized for more than 20 years by the Ostrava Center for New Music. We also asked Petr Kotík, the founder of this organization, for a new composition.
The concerts will be performed by a chamber orchestra Ostrava gangwhich Petr Kotík founded in 2005 as a resident orchestra of the Ostrava Days, pianist Daan Vandewalle (Belgium) and violinists Hany Kotkové (Switzerland)who have been collaborating with the Ostrava Center for New Music for many years and have performed dozens of compositions for the festival. They conduct Bruno Ferrandis AND Jiří Rožeňsome compositions are also studied by Petr Kotík.
“He is a tireless organizer of concerts with extremely interesting and valuable music. Many of the songs that were made thanks to him would not be heard at all. I remember, for example, the New York premieres of Feldman’s concerts (piano, flute, violin) – they were heard in New York for the first time in more than 20 years since their inception, and only thanks to Petr Kotík. It is also found that a number of new compositions were created, especially orchestral ones, which composers would not otherwise have the opportunity to write and not hear live at all. I myself benefited from this because I had never had the opportunity to write something for the orchestra until then; the same was true for Alvin Lucier, “ says the legendary American composer and one of his closest collaborators about Peter Kotík Christian Wolff.
Young American composer Anna Heflinová adds: “The simultaneous events of events, musical voices and multilingualism are inseparable from the Ostrava Days, and the Ostrava Days are inseparable from Petr Kotík. He deserves a big thank you for everything he has created, and also for tirelessly supporting young composers and taking them as equals. ”
Petr Kotík (January 27, 1942), composer, conductor, flutist. He was born in Prague and comes from an artistic family of artists Pravoslav and Jan Kotík. He studied new experimental music at the Prague Conservatory, where he studied flute. He founded an ensemble with Rudolf Komorous in 1961 Musica viva pragensis (MVP), followed by studying at the Vienna Academy of Music and returning to Prague, where Petr Kotík founded and led the ensemble QuaX file, he was connected, like the MVP, to the European musical avant – garde and performed extensively abroad. In 1969, Petr Kotík went to the USA on a scholarship, where he has lived and worked ever since. In 1970, Kotík founded the famous SEM Ensemble in Buffalo, which is the longest-running ensemble for new music in the USA. In 1992, the SEM Ensemble expanded to a large orchestra in New York. Kotík’s compositions include the extensive vocal compositions Many Many Women to the text by Gertrude Stein and Explorations in the Geometry of Thinking to the text by R. Buckminster Fuller. There are also orchestral and numerous chamber works and two operas.
Among the significant founding activities outside of American activities and projects is the establishment of the Ostrava Center for New Music (OCNH), which has been organized since 2001. Ostrava days (OD), Institute and Festival of New Music. The Ostrava Days, which take place every two years, are one of the largest summer projects for contemporary music in the world. In 2005, Kotík founded the International Chamber Orchestra Ostrava gangin 2017 ONO – Ostrava New Orchestra – 80-member orchestra of young European players for contemporary music. In 2012, together with Jiří Nekvasil, he founded a festival for a new opera NODE (Days of the new Ostrava Opera). It also functions as a biennial, in cooperation with the Moravian-Silesian National Theater and foreign opera stages. This year’s NODO is produced in the last week of June and the program includes a six-hour composition by Many Many Women by Petr Kotík. In January this year, the American Foundation for Contemporary Art awarded Petr Kotík a prestigious award John Cage Award.
Kotik @ 80
Have No Fear / Kotik Is Here
Tuesday 26. 4. 19:00 – PLATO, Ostrava
Thursday 28. 4. 19:00 – DOX +, Prague
Hana Kotková (home)
Daan Vandewalle (piano)
Daniel Skála (dulcimer)
Gabriela Krchňáčková (dulcimer)
Ostrava gang
Bruno Ferrandis, Jiří Rožeň, Petr Kotík, conductors
Christian Wolff: A small world (2022)
Bernhard Lang: game 12 (2021)
Petr Cígler: Rattlesnake No. 1 (2022)
Petr Bakla: Two instances (2016)
Phil Niblock: Peter’s charm (2021)
Daniel Skála: Petram (2022)
Ana Sokolovic: Pigeon-Hedgehog-Cat (2022)
Anna Heflin: Such and such is such and such (2022)
Petr Kotik: Piano Piano (2022)
More information on the website www.newmusicostrava.cz and Facebook www.facebook.com/ocnhOva/
Ticket price: 250 CZK (Ostrava) / 300 CZK (Prague – https://goout.net/en/have-no-fear-kotik-is-here/szwbtdt/)
It is organized by the Ostrava Center for New Music in cooperation with the PLATO City Gallery in Ostrava and the DOX Center for Contemporary Art.
We thank the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic, the Statutory City of Ostrava, the Moravian-Silesian Region, Veronica and Libor Winkler and Martin Vohánek for financial support.