Czech Christmas with Kühn Children’s Choir

• Kühn Children’s Choir
• Jiří Chvála   choirmaster
• Daniel Wiesner   piano
• Gabriela Kubátová   violin

The concert is without an interval. Duration: 70 minutes

Programme

Václav Trojan: Chap-book Christmas

Suites for children’s choir and piano

Zdeněk Lukáš: Merry Christmas

Christmas singalong for children’s choir, violin and piano to the text of Václav Fischer

Vítězslav Novák: Songs for Winter Nights

(parts from the piano cycle)
3. Song of Christmas Eve
4. Carnival Night Song

Bohuslav Martinů: Three Legends

The Nativity of Our Lord – The Ascension – Progress to Paradise
for female voices and violin to the words of Moravian folk verse

Jan Hanuš: Winter, from the cycle The Czech Year

for children’s choir and piano

Petr Eben: Carollers from Těšín

Christmas carols for children’s choir and piano

The Kühn Children’s Choir

(established in 1932) ranks among leading Czech vocal ensembles renowned not only in Europe, but also in Japan, USA, Canada, Mexico, Singapore, Malaysia, and South Korea. In its 77 years of existence, it has trained thousands of talented children, instilling in them love of music and the arts. Some of its most gifted former members have grown up to become major artists: conductors, music directors, composers, singers, and instrumentalists. The choir’s outstanding status is attested to by numerous official awards and distinctions, including the 1998 European Grand Prix. In 2008 the choir won the first prize in the world’s most prestigious choral competition in Tolosa, Spain; the Kühn Children’s Choir was the only ensemble to have won this competition twice (for the first time in 1998). The choir receives regular invitations to major music festivals and concert tours. Apart from appearing in its own concerts, it works systematically with prominent orchestras, the Prague State Opera, the National Theatre in Prague, and various international opera houses. Figuring among its recent triumphs were appearances in New York’s famed Carnegie Hall, and at the Bregenzer Festspiele 2003, in a stage production of Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen. In April 2005, the choir made a tour in Mexico; in July 2007 toured in South Korea and Japan; in October 2008 in Spain, and in July 2009 in Provence, France. In September 2010 the choir won the first prize in the prestigious competition in Arezzo, Italy. Between 1952 and 1992, the Kühn Children’s Choir was affiliated with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra. Its discography comprises over 50 LP records and CDs.

Prof. Jiří Chvála

(b. 1933) followed his studies of conducting at Prague’s Academy of Music by work as chorus master of the then Czech Choir (today the Prague Philharmonic Choir), affiliated with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra. He engaged in building up systematically the ensemble’s repertoire to encompass a broad range of choral works, oratorios and cantatas, performing them in productions mounted in collaboration with leading composers. Since 1967 he has stood at the head of the Kühn Children’s Choir, which he has to date taken on several dozen international tours. No less significant has been his career of many years as an educator at Prague’s Academy of Music, where he is Professor of conducting and choral disciplines. With the Kühn Children’s Choir, he has appeared regularly at music festivals in this country and abroad, as well as working with Czech and international opera houses, and conducting a wide variety of other domestic and international choral and orchestral ensembles. As a teacher, he has lectured at various international choral seminars (Vienna, Tokyo, Grasse, Helsinki, Singapore, Princeton), and has sat on numerous international choral competition juries. He has to his credit an imposing list of recordings for the radio, and over 30 discs. In 2003, on the occasion of his 70th birthday, Professor Chvála received from the Czech Minister of Education the Award of Merit (Second Degree) for lifelong educational endeavour.

www.kuhnata.cz