Wind Orchestras blow into town for International Festival

From January 4th to 6th, Prague is playing host to the International Festival of Wind Orchestras. Within the Czech Republic, the tradition of wind orchestras is strongest in North Moravia, but this festival will bring together orchestras from as far away as Belgium, Italy, and the Netherlands. Pavla Navratilova has the details...

The International Festival of Wind Orchestras is a competition that has been held in Czech Republic for more than 25 years. Recently the festival moved from Brno to Prague to cater to more international delegations and audiences. I spoke to the festival's organizer, Ivana Sladkova, who told me about this year's festival...

The festival usually takes place over the first weekend in January and this year it will host 18 orchestras from all over Europe. The festival features orchestras that consist of all instruments found within a Philharmonic orchestra minus the string instruments, and these eighteen orchestras will be divided and judged within three categories: novice, intermediate, and advanced. We will have three days of competition concerts leading up to the grand finale on Saturday, where many orchestras will perform.

The competition ranks participants according to talent, and it focuses on Czech composers of music written for wind orchestras, such as F. Kmocha's, entitled "Muziky, Muziky".

If you happen to be in Prague and are interested in seeing some talented performances, you can still catch this festival at Narodni Dùm Na Smichove, on Saturday afternoon.