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ArtsPavla Milcova: My music is my heart and the way to my soul
It is hard to describe Pavla Milcova's style of music. She sings in both
English and Czech, often using the rhythms of traditional Celtic music
with a melody that may be inspired by traditional Slovak or Moravian folk
music. Michelle Dobrovolna went to one of her concerts in a small pub in
Prague's centre to talk with Pavla about her music, and the current trends
in folk music.
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Current AffairsSinger-songwriter Jaromir Nohavica moving on to North America after shows in Ireland, UK
Jaromir Nohavica is one of the country's best loved singer-songwriters. He
is so popular that his concerts are always sold out, despite usually not
being advertised at all. But not content with resting on his laurels here
in the Czech Republic, the north Moravian singer has just embarked on a
tour of cities in the English speaking world. So far Nohavica has appeared
in Dublin and London, from where his tour manager Michal Zacek told us how
it has been going so far.
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Current AffairsCzechTek clashes inspire a latter-day protest song
What has the Czech singer/songwriter, Jaromir Nohavica - singing to the
nothing more than an acoustic guitar - have in common with the endlessly
repetitive rhythms of Techno? The answer is quite simple. Nohavica, famed
for his protest songs going back to the days of communism and his role in
the recent Czech film Year of the Devil, has composed a brand new protest
song. He is responding to last weekend's huge techno-party that ended in
violent clashes between participants and the police, who used tear gas,
water cannon and batons to end the rave. The police intervention has
divided Czech society between those, including the Prime Minister Jiri
Paroubek, who say that the police were simply fulfilling their duty to
preserve law and order and those, including President Vaclav Klaus, and
his predecessor Vaclav Havel, who say that the intervention was vastly out
of scale.
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Current AffairsTwentieth Namest nad Oslavou folk festival begins Saturday
This year's Folkove Prazdniny, or Folk Holidays, festival begins in Namest
nad Oslavou in south Moravia on Saturday. Among the main attractions will
be Irish singer Glen Hansard, who plays regularly in the Czech Republic,
both solo and with his band the Frames. Other artists appearing over the
eight days of the festival will include guests from Italy, Senegal and the
United Kingdom.
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ArtsLanguage no barrier at Prague Fringe Festival
Last week Prague locals as well as visitors had the chance to see 166
performances of theater, poetry, dance, music, puppets, improvisation and
other shows, mostly by amateurs. The Prague Fringe Festival was
established just three years ago, but the history of fringe festivals goes
back to 1947 in Edinburgh. At the time some of the performers were not
allowed to perform at the city's larger official festival. In response
they established their own "fringe" performances. Today the idea
has spread to about 50 towns around the world, mostly in English speaking
countries. In Prague too it is dominated by the English language and is
popular with the city's English speaking community.
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Current AffairsNew Cechomor CD one of biggest releases of year in Czech Republic
Monday saw one of the Czech Republic's biggest CD releases of the year,
with the popular folk-rock group Cechomor bringing out their fifth studio
album, "Co sa stalo nove", or as they translate it "What
Happened Next".
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ArtsRaduza: a singer with unbounded inspiration
She is a young fragile-looking woman but with a raw and deep voice, full of
life and energy. She started as a very young girl busking with a guitar.
Now she is one of the most popular Czech folk singers. Raduza - as she
calls herself - has now released her third CD, but the new album is not
just a continuation of her previous work - one can feel that Raduza has
found new inspiration and that her music is developing. But she says that
she hasn't gone for a deliberate change of style.
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Current AffairsIva Bittova to release album in United States
The Czech singer and violinist Iva Bittova, who's often described as one of
the most remarkable personalities in Czech music, is gaining more and more
fans also among foreign audiences. Two years ago she was among the
nominees in the BBC Radio 3 World Music Awards and last year she made a
number of appearances in the United States. Following another two gigs in
Philadelphia and at New York's Carnegie Hall last month, Iva Bittova is
now set to release an album in the United States.
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Current AffairsMusician and songwriter Karel Plihal releases album to celebrate 25-year career
Karel Plihal, one of the country's most popular musicians and songwriters
has just released a new album and DVD to celebrate 25 years in the
business. The double album called Karel Plihal in Olomouc features live
performances from a December concert in his Moravian home town. The songs
were selected by Karel Plihal himself. He says these songs have been
closest to his heart in his musical career. Besides his most popular
songs, it includes tracks that have never been released before, and forty
short poems.
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