Veselé Vánoce! A Czech Christmas at the University of North Texas
Welcome to the 2nd International Festival of Czech Music, co-sponsored by the College of Music at the University of North Texas and the Czech Educational Foundation of Texas. We are pleased to announce the program of national and international artists and scholars who will participate in the event, many of whom are drawn from our sister-institutions in the Czech Republic: the Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts (Brno) and Palacký University (Olomouc).
Our "Christmas-themed" festival of Czech music, scheduled for 18-21 November 2015, commemorates two events:
- the 600th anniversary of the burning of Jan Hus at the stake (1415)
- the 10th anniversary of the establishment of the endowment created by the Czech Educational Foundation of Texas at the College of Music, University of North Texas
Jan Hus was rector at Prague University and a key predecessor to the Protestant movement of the sixteenth century. Hus, like Martin Luther, was a Catholic priest. Like Luther, Hus believed that the Church had fallen into chaos and corruption. Preaching in Czech rather than in Latin, Hus enjoyed widespread support not only from scholars and students dedicated to rectifying the vices of the Church, but also from the Czech-speaking peasant masses. Hus was imprisoned and, on July 6th, 1415, the Catholic Church executed the spiritual leader of the Czech reform movement. The event led to the formation of the Hussite movement and, ultimately, to the formation of the Unitas Fratrum (Jednota bratrská, Czech Brethren).
The Czech Brethren in Bohemia and Moravia and, by extension, the "Moravian" Brethren in America—the reconstituted "Czech" Brethren in Herrnhut, Saxony (forced out of the Czech kingdom after the Battle of White Mountain in 1620 and which then came to convert the eastern seaboard of the United States) continue as active religious dominations; in Texas, 27 congregations of the Moravian Brethren are currently active.
The music of the Czech Brethren and the Moravian Brethren are very different from one another—one originating as a reaction to Catholic polyphony and one resurrected in Saxony in a German tradition; together with the music of the mainstream Catholic tradition that continues in the Czech Republic to the present day, these three musical styles provide a great and diverse body of choral, symphonic, and chamber literature for a festival focused on "Czech" music prior to the Czech Nationalist movement.
In addition to distinguished performers and scholars living in the United States, our international roster of visitors includes Mikuláš Bek (Professor of Musicology & Rector of Masaryk University), Vít Zouhar (Professor of Musicology and Provost of Palacký University), Ivo Medek (Professor of Composition and Rector of the Janáček Academy of Music & the Performing Arts), and Sára Medková and Barbara Willi (artists-in-residence at the Janáček Academy).
The keynote work of the event—the Česká mše vánoční (Christmas Mass) by Czech composer Jakub Jan Ryba (1765-1815)—will be performed on Saturday, 21 November in a concert setting with UNT faculty and student soloists, 65-voice choir, and orchestra. Subsequently, beginning on Sunday, 29 November (the first Sunday of Advent, also Thanksgiving Sunday), the Christmas Mass will be performed by UNT soloists and small choir and orchestra at Texas-Czech churches in West, Fort Worth, Ennis, Austin, Temple, College Station, Houston, and Gainesville.
Our November 2015 festival and academic conference serves as the prequel to our Janáček festival of February 2013 by placing that Czech Nationalist Movement (Smetana, Dvořák, etc.) of the 19th century in historical perspective, and is the second of three festivals planned in the series.