1800 musicians will perform at the Sounds of Žofín festival in Prague in July
The festival will welcome wind orchestras from around the world, offering 32 concerts over four days. The jubilee year of the conference is dedicated to the composer Karel Hus, the winner of the Pulitzer Prize. The special guest of the festival is the US Marine Band, the main ceremonial orchestra of American presidents, which will play in the Czech Republic for the first time on July 20. Kateřina Košťálová informed ČTK about this on behalf of the organizers.
The festival will open on the evening of July 19 in the Great Hall of the Žofín Palace with the Central Music of the Army of the Czech Republic. On the same day, an afternoon concert performance takes place in the Sala terrena of the Wallenstein Garden below Prague Castle, where the Saratoga High School Symphony Orchestra will perform. In addition to the Central Music of the Army of the Czech Republic, the Czech Republic will be represented at the festival by, for example, the National Wind Orchestra, Harmony Šternberk, the Lašský Wind Orchestra Štramberk-Příbor or the Haná Přerov Wind Orchestra.
During the festival, a WASBE composition competition will also be created, in which new compositions for wind orchestras will compete. The WASBE Youth Wind Orchestra will perform in Žofín on July 23, whose members will be selected from among young applicants from all over the world. During the festival, under the expert guidance of conductors Tim Reynish and Marek Prášil, they will study the program mainly in domestic music.
Different views of the symphonic wind tradition will be offered by a lecture program of more than dozens of lectures, which will take place in the Knight’s Hall of the Žofín Palace. The program will also include an exhibition of musical instruments by local and foreign producers and sheet music.
Karel Husa (1921–2016), a native of Prague, is known around the world as a co-creator of a symphonic wind repertoire. His Music for Prague 1968 had more than 17,000 reruns worldwide. Julius Fučík and Václav Nelhýbel are among the other composers that will be expanded at the conference. More information can be found at pages festival Sounds of Žofín.