ZUŠ OPEN Festival in the Pardubice Region

On Sunday, May 18, one of the main cultural events of the nationwide ZUŠ OPEN festival of elementary art schools took place in the premises of the Monastery of the Holy Mother of God at Králíky, with a significant contribution from the Czech National Concert Band under the direction of conductor Jaroslav Šlais.

The central point of the programme was a festive Holy Mass, during which more than one hundred musicians jointly performed Missa Brevis by contemporary Dutch composer Jacob de Haan. The Czech National Concert Band formed the core of the instrumental section and accompanied the vocal part, provided by the children’s choirs Rošťák of ZUŠ Přelouč, the choirs from ZUŠ Polička and ZUŠ Dolní Újezd, and the Orlice Mixed Choir from Kostelec nad Orlicí. Organist Ondřej Hromádko accompanied the solos, and Mrs. Irena Pohl Houkalová, director of ZUŠ OPEN, also sang a solo part.

The event drew exceptional attention — the monastery was completely filled, and the performance was rewarded with prolonged applause, with visitors coming from long distances.

An important part of this year’s ZUŠ OPEN festival programme was also the reprise of this unique mass, which took place a week later in the church at Neratov. This unique venue, with its glass roof, provided a perfect backdrop for a musical experience that once again received highly positive responses from the audience.