Smetana days
International Classical Music Festival in Pilsen
It is our honour to welcome you to the 45th year of Smetana Days, a music festival that has gained the popularity and respect of the general cultural public for more than forty years of its existence. This year, it will take place from 6 March to 10 April 2025.
Smetana Days represent a significant cultural holiday that annually offers residents and visitors to the city
of Pilsen rich and varied artistic experiences. In its name (originally the Smetana Festival, since 1985 Smetana Days) the festival bears the name of a great personality of Czech music – Bedřich Smetana, who, according to his own words, lived in Pilsen during his studies the most beautiful years of his life.
The festival was founded jointly by thePilsen and Prague institutions under the leadership of the Department of Cultureof the Municipal Council of Pilsen. It was intended as a multidisciplinary artistic festival for the public with professional symposium for specialists and invited guests. Cultural programme offered various genres - opera, symphonic and chamber concerts, drama performances and exhibitions, or, depending on the theme, films or lectures for the public. The scientific meetings, in terms of content closely linked to the events of the participating institutions, were always focused on exploring different aspects of the life in the 19th century.
The critical 1990s brought to a number of cultural institutions struggling for existence and transformation. The Park of Culture and Recreation, the mainorganizer of cultural programmes, became a part of the Esprit Cultural Centre and later disappeared, and also the Pilsen Radio Orchestra struggled to survive, then it was transformed into the Pilsen Philharmonic Orchestra. It is admirable that even at these difficult times, the festival managed to survive. A change was brought about in 2005, when the new organizer, Dominik Centre, Ltd., while respecting the central theme, opened the festival to new trends and multi-genre and expanded the duration of the festival (in the beginning it was a matter of one week).
After the problems that occurred in the connection with financing the Smetana Days in 2012, the Pilsen Philharmonic, which until then had successfully realized several extraordinary concerts, won a grant competition for the organisation of the festival. Currently it collaborates and cooperates in its preparation with a team of experts of the Institute of Art History of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Institute for Czech Literature of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, the Faculty of Philosophy of Charles University in Prague and the Pilsen City Archive and with experts from a number of Pilsen institutions. The West Bohemian Music Centre and the Pilsen Conservatory join with their concerts, the Museum of West Bohemia, the Education and Research Library of the Pilsen Region and the Gallery of West Bohemia realize interesting and inspiring exhibitions. In addition, every two years (since 2002), the Pilsen Conservatory has been organizing the Smetana International Piano Competition, culminating in concerts played by the laureates of top interpretational qualities. The competitors of the 3rd category traditionally compete in the final round in a partnership with Pilsen Philharmonic on the stage of the Great Hall of Měšťanská beseda. The performances of JK Tyl Theatre arealways beneficial as well as productions making the world of “classical music” accessible in a fun, playful way for younger audiences. So nowadays, the
Smetana Days Festival, as in its first year, connects the scholarly professional line with a series of artistic areas open to the general public – music, theatre, visual arts, film and photography – thus fulfilling the original intention of the
festival. In the last ten years, Sophia Burgos, Kristjan Järvi, Alexander Ghindin, Pascal Rogé, Alban Beikircher, Alexander Blettenberg, Jiří Stivín, Ivan Klánský, Ivo Kahánek and others performed at the festival. Among the participating orchestras were, for example, the Munich Philharmonic, Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra, Central German Radio Symphony Orchestra (MDR) Leipzig or the Prague Symphony Orchestra and Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra.
We hope that fans of the Smetana Days will find something near and dear to their hearts.
