#Press Release: "You have arrived in Ostrava, a unique place!!!“ The Ostrava Days Institute for Composers has begun
Publikováno: 13.8.2025
Ostrava, August 13, 2025 – One of the largest contemporary music festivals in Central Europe, Ostrava Days (August 21–30, 2025), is preceded and runs in parallel with the OstravaDays Institute (August 11–30) – a kind of summer school, a three-week gathering of 35 carefully selected residents, mostly young composers, who have come to Ostrava from various corners of the world. The working language is English, in which they communicate with each other and with their mentors about questions of musical creation, as well as their artistic and personal approaches. At first, these exchanges take place in smaller circles, but soon the resident-students begin to present their works publicly, meeting with leading figures of today’s music scene – whether they are composers decorated with prestigious awards or virtuoso performers dedicated to contemporary music. Together, over the course of three weeks, they form a platform of around 200 people, offering a vivid glimpse into what is happening right now on the concert (and electronic) music scene. The festival’s program also reaches back to the roots of what carried the banner of the avant-garde in the 20th century.
Excellent facilities are provided to the organizing Ostrava Center for New Music and to all musicians – especially the Institute’s residents – by the City Campus, the new building of the Faculty of Fine Arts at the University of Ostrava, with which the Ostrava Center for New Music has signed a memorandum of long-term cooperation. Since the opening of the City Campus in 2023, the Ostrava Days Institute has been housed in modern, representative spaces offering ample comfort for meetings, program rehearsals, and chamber concerts. The larger orchestral concerts will, as in previous years, take place at Trojhalí Karolina. This year, the Ostrava Days Festival will bring audiences to a total of seven venues in central Ostrava, including the DOV (Lower Vítkovice) complex, which will also host the festival’s “Opening” Open Call – a program made up entirely of works by the Institute’s residents.
“The work of an artist is, by its very nature, entirely different from all other human endeavors. An artistic work does not concern itself with immediate public success, just as is the case with scientific work. This means such work depends on the support and participation of others. In this respect, music is the most demanding of all artistic disciplines: at no stage can it be realized without a tremendous contribution from many sides. For a composer’s work to be performed publicly, it requires the active involvement of numerous other musicians and institutions – from those presenting the piece to audiences, to the organizations that finance the entire undertaking. And one must always keep in mind that no great work has ever been created without controversy – in other words, no major piece was ever an unambiguous success upon its first encounter with the public.”With these words, on Monday, 11 August, at the City Campus, Petr Kotík, artistic director and founder of the project, welcomed the residents of the Ostrava Days Institute.
Among the young composers are students and graduates of prestigious music schools and academies from the USA – Northwestern University, Wesleyan University, Manhattan School of Music, University of Chicago, Harvard University, as well as McGill University in Montréal. From Europe, participants include students from the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest, Norwegian Academy of Music, Iceland University of the Arts, Conservatorium van Amsterdam, Estonian Academy of Music, as well as our own JAMU and HAMU, London’s Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and the music academy in Dnipro. A complete list, including the residents’ names, can be found on our website.
Among them are also those who have attended Ostrava Days before, such as Marie Nečasová, a student at HAMU in Prague: “Simply saying that Ostrava Days is a truly exceptional event does not do justice to this wonderfully crazy project. You have to come and experience at least one evening literally overflowing with music. For me as a resident – meeting so many composers, each with a different approach to composition, attending lectures and masterclasses, casually chatting over lunch with icons of contemporary music, having my piece performed by incredible musicians, and trying to take it all in – it was an experience I still think back on to this day. Intense, varied, and transformative. Thank you for that!”
From August 11 to 30, the Institute’s residents will work closely with leading composers of today, including Austrians Bernhard Lang and Klaus Lang, Pulitzer Prize winner Tania León, Alex Mincek and Charles Ames from the USA, Canadian Christopher Butterfield, Swedish Lisa Streich, Serbian Snežana Nešić, and, from the Czech Republic, Miroslav Srnka, Slavomír Hořínka, and Luboš Mrkvička.
Works by the residents – for small ensembles as well as large orchestras – can be heard throughout the Ostrava Days festival. Its dramaturgical concept deliberately challenges traditional hierarchical models, placing works by the Institute’s young composers alongside pieces by established creators. In Ostrava daily from August 21 to August 30.
You can find the festival program here.
