Our experience and vision
The festival is part of the global trend of searching for new connections between traditional, classical and contemporary music, thereby creating a musical event that is unique on the Czech music scene.
The festival is exceptional in that it enables world musicians and Czech audiences to come together in a place, which for many visitors is unconventional, yet has a long tradition, including in the field of music, while being well outside the Czech capital. Proof of the fact that the focus of the festival has been moving in the right direction is the success of the past six years, supported by audience response and reviews by music critics, with listeners from Britain, France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Belarus, the Netherlands, France, Senegal, Argentina, Slovakia, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland and the Czech Republic. This event in southern Bohemia in August has a truly European dimension.
The Dobršská brána festival offers a refreshing insight into the world of contemporary music without dramaturgical compromises or formal classification of performers into genres. In the work they present, they freely switch between genres and combine elements of folk music with jazz and chamber music. The specific dramaturgy of the festival and its motto “Gateway to the world of music” reflects this. Individual concerts of the festival take place at various locations in Dobrš. Chamber concerts are in the Church of the Annunciation, while other performances are in the area of the castle or in the chapel of Saints John and Paul. Listeners and musicians are thus able to acquaint themselves up close with historical Dobrš and its monuments.
The aim is to present leading European and world players who have not performed in the Czech Republic in recent years, each year focusing a different musical instrument. Well-known Czech and foreign musicians and groups present themselves in compositions that work with improvisation, historical origins, national folk motifs; performances of intonation and general musical engagement. Both ancient and completely contemporary music is heard as it emerges at the moment of the performance.
The focus of the seventh year of the festival this year is the violin. We will hear this instrument in various combinations, including in free improvisation. There will be a variety of jazz in all forms and colors, as well as compositions inpired by national folklore and compositions tailored to specific performers.
His Excellency Karel Schwarzenberg has assumed patronage of the festival.
The main partners of the festival in 2023 are the Czech Ministry of Culture, the State Fund for Culture, the South Bohemian Region, Nadace Život umělce (The Life of the Artist Foundation) and ČEPS a.s. (the Czech electric power transmission system operator).
FESTIVAL LOCATIONS
