Špilberk International Music Festival

For nearly two decades now, the second half of August in Brno is unthinkable without an open-air music festival at Špilberk Castle. For the 19th annual festival, the organiser, Brno Philharmonic, is once again targeting a broad audience, offering a summer musical entertainment under the open sky in the castle’s captivating historical setting. The host orchestra will perform twice. First, featuring the charming Latvian accordionist, Ksenija Sidorova, and under the baton of Marko Ivanovič, they will play the passionate melodies of Bizet’s Carmen and Astor Piazzolla’s works permeated by Argentinian tango. A second concert, conducted by Leoš Svárovský, will commemorate the one-hundredth anniversary of Leonard Bernstein’s birth and the foundation of our republic. A newly founded wind orchestra, the Moravia Brass Band, consisting of outstanding players from leading Czech and Moravian symphonic ensembles, will perform for the first time in Brno. Supporting popular singers Milan Peroutka and Anna Julie Slováčková, they will play music from film blockbusters, in arrangements showcasing the imposing and robust sound of their instruments. Prepared by the festival in cooperation with Vienna’s IMZ (Internationales Musikzentrum), the traditional big-screen shows will this time offer audio-visual recordings of star-studded gala concerts from Baden-Baden and Grafenegg.