Ostrava Days is a three-week long institute, which culminates in a 7-day festival. It is a working environment with a focus on compositions for orchestra. With two resident orchestras - the 95-piece Janáček Philharmonic Orchestra and Ostravská banda - as well as a score of chamber ensembles, conductors, soloists and 35-piece choir Canticum Ostrava, it is one of the largest events of its kind in the world. It is organized biennially and since its inception in 2001, it has made a significant contribution to the music of today.
Ostrava Days Institute is an international working environment. For three weeks, a group of 35 resident students, composers, performers, and musicologists work with notable personalities in the field of new and contemporary music. The Institute, consisting of seminars, workshops, presentations, discussions and individual meetings, is mainly focused on works for orchestra. The working language is English and virtually all communication among participants is in English. Ostrava Days is not a school where one teaches various disciplines. Our assumption is that art cannot be taught, but that one nevertheless learns by working in association with more-experienced colleagues. Morton Feldman’s understanding of orchestration resulted from a discussion with Edgar Varèse on the streets of New York. John Cage maintained that he learned most while playing chess with Henry Cowell and Marcel Duchamp. Ostrava Days attempts to create a similarly open, "educational" environment, where participants work together and are mutually influenced.
Ostrava Days Festival unfolds during the last week of the Institute and includes 15 concerts, seven of which are with Janáček Philharmonic Orchestra and Ostravská Banda. The programming of the festival is independent of mainstream festival programs and has included major works by Christian Wolff, Alvin Lucier, Petr Kotik, Martin Smolka, Phill Niblock, Elliott Sharp, Bernhard Lang, Rebecca Sauders, Kaija Saariaho, among others. Classics of new music are also often presented. They include works by Morton Feldman, John Cage, Earle Brown, Luigi Nono, Iannis Xenakis, Karlheinz Stockhausen, György Ligeti, Edgar Varèse or Galina Ustwolskaja, among others. The program of the festival also includes substantial number of works by resident-students of the OD Institute.
