Artistic director

Milan Motl

artistic director

PhDr. Milan Motl, Ph.D. (*1977) is a choirmaster, conductor, music teacher and organiser. He graduated from the University of Hradec Králové in Music education, History and Solo singing (with Jana Machačová). He studied choral conducting in the subject of choir management, and orchestra conducting privately in Prague (with Jiří Portych). He completed his university studies with doctorates at the University of Ostrava and Charles University in Prague.

He gained his first choral conducting experience in the Bonifantes Boys Choir in Pardubice (1999-2003). Since 2002 he has been teaching music at the Higher Vocational School of Pedagogy and the Secondary Pedagogical School in Litomyšl, where he leads the KOS Mixed Choir and the KOKOS Chamber Choir as its artistic director. With these ensembles, he has achieved outstanding success at home and abroad (Europe, America, Asia), together they have released 10 CDs. Milan Motl has received numerous awards for his artistic and pedagogical activity, several special jury prizes at competitions and festivals (e.g. for dramaturgy, performance of obligatory compositions, conducting performance). The Czech Choirs Association awarded him the National Choirmaster Junior Award (2012) for his outstanding achievements as a choirmaster; and KOS was awarded the Choir of the Year Award (2018). Milan Motl and KOS are laureates of the Letohrad International Music Festival (2012). The town of Litomyšl awarded Milan Motl with the Plaque of the Town Council for merit for the development of Litomyšl in the field of education and culture (2013), the Pardubice Region rewarded him with the Award of Merit (2017).

Milan Motl is also involved in organising and publishing activities in the field of music education and choir singing. He participates in national and international events. He is a member of the music committee of the Czech Choirs Association and the NIPOS-ARTAMA Prague expert council for youth choir singing. Occasionally, he is also active as a vocal coach and music director. He is frequently invited to be part of the jury of competitions and as a lecturer of choirmaster courses and choir workshops in the Czech Republic and abroad.

He has previously participated in the International Festival of Songs Olomouc as a juror. It was due to his experience in judging various choral competitions, his drive and overall outlook that the festival organisation team approached him in spring 2022 with the proposal to become the new artistic director of the festival.

Milan Motl, artistic director of the Festival of Songs Olomouc, international festival of choirs

Artistic board

The Festival's Artistic Council is a professional advisory body to the Artistic Director, with whom he consults the Festival's concept, the setting of competition rules, the selection of recommended works and dramaturgical plans, including the choice of performers. Its members often participate in the festival as jurors themselves. They are approached and appointed to the artistic council by the artistic director for the following festival year.

Lenka Dohnalová

Lenka Dohnalová graduated from the Faculty of Education of Palacký University Olomouc, majoring in Czech language and Music education. She has been teaching for almost three decades at the Grammar school in Olomouc-Hejčín and leading three ensembles. The oldest – the Lenka Dohnalová Mlynářová Chamber Choir – focuses on contemporary classical music, jazz and musical projects (e.g. in the past she has collaborated with the Janáček Philharmonic Orchestra, the Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra in Olomouc, Bohuslav Martinů Philharmonic Orchestra, the Podkarpackie Philharmonic Orchestra in Rzeszów and artists such as Emil Viklický, Dan Bárta, etc.). The Prostějov women’s choir Proměny is rather pop-rock and folklore oriented, this grammar school choir is characterised by music-drama projects (P. Helebrand’s Evangelium with Hradišťan). Most of the repertoire is also interesting because it includes original vocal arrangements by the choirmaster and instrumental arrangements by Richard and Petr Mlynář. Lenka is a recipient of the Olomouc City Award and the Olomouc Region Award in the field of Culture.

Jan Vičar

Prof. PhDr. MgA. Jan Vičar, CSc., is engaged in composition, musicology and pedagogical and organisational activities. Among other things, he worked at Palacký University in Olomouc, as editor-in-chief of the journal Hudební rozhledy, published a number of scientific studies and books, lectured at American universities and founded the international festival of contemporary music MusicOlomouc. His compositions have been performed in the Czech Republic and abroad and published on CD and in print. He is a professor at the Faculty of Music and Dance at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague and the Faculty of Education at the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen. He has been closely associated with the Festival of Songs Olomouc for more than half a century. In 2024 he was inducted into the “Hall of Fame” of the Olomouc Region.

Lenka Polášková

Lenka Polášková graduated from the P. J. Vejvanovský Conservatory in Kroměříž in piano performance and the University of Ostrava in Music Education - Choir Conducting. At the beginning of her studies at the University of Ostrava she renewed the tradition of choral singing in Hulín and in September 1999 she founded the Mixed Choir Smetana - Hulín, of which she is still the choirmaster. Currently, Lenka Polášková is the deputy school director at the P. J. Vejvanovský Conservatory in Kroměříž, where she also directs the mixed choir of the conservatory's students. This ensemble regularly participates in international choral competitions and under her direction has become one of the best choirs in its category in the Czech Republic. Since 1998, she has been cooperating with the children's choir Moravské děti, which she leads to this day. Moravské Děti have represented Czech choral art at many concerts, festivals and international competitions (Sweden, Japan, China, etc.). In 2010, she was awarded the Sbormistr - junior award by the Czech Choirs Association for her achievements. She is regularly invited to join the juries of international choral competitions.

Jan Pirner

PhDr. Jan Pirner studied Czech language and Literature and Music Education at the Pedagogical Faculty of Charles University (2002—2008) and Musicology at the Faculty of Arts of Charles University (2003—2006). He was the director of the Prague Chamber Choir (2010—2020), with whom he travelled through most of Europe, Japan, Macao and Lebanon and repeatedly visited major music festivals (Rossini Opera Festival, Wexford Festival Opera, etc.). In 2012-18, he was employed at the Cabinet of Music History of the Institute of Ethnology of the Czech Academy of Sciences as an editor of the scientific journal Hudební věda (Music Science), where he also participated in research on Dvořák. Since 2012, he has been working at the National Information and Advisory Centre for Culture (NIPOS) as a music library administrator, editor of the Polyhymnia Bohemica choral edition and, since 2019, as a specialist in adult choral singing. He has been involved in music since childhood, first in the Pueri gaudentes boys' choir, and later as a member or occasional guest of professional choirs and chamber ensembles (Prague Philharmonic Choir, Prague Chamber Choir, Kühn Mixed Choir, etc.). Since 2012, he has been the choirmaster of the children's choir Radost Praha, with which he regularly competes and gives concerts at home and abroad (Bratislava, Kaunas, Limburg-Lindenholzhausen, Montreux, Neerpelt, Preveza, Rimini, Sopot, Warsaw) and also participates in music festivals (Dvořák's Prague, Smetana's Litomyšl, Prague Sounds, Bohuslav Martinů Days), in 2015, he founded the girls' chamber choir Vokalion Praha. For his choirmaster and organisational work he received the award for the best choirmaster of the Kaunas Cantat festival in Lithuania (2016), the Award of the Prague 7 Municipal Council for merit in the field of culture (2016) and the Sbormistr junior award (2016), a national award given by the Czech Choirs Association.

Patrik Buchta

MgA. Patrik Buchta studied choral conducting at the Janáček Academy of Performing Arts in Brno (2017—2023). He’s been extending his knowledge in organ playing at the Brno Conservatory (since 2020). At the St. Cyril and Methodius Grammar School and Pedagogical Secondary School Brno, he works with the Cantate girls' choir (since 2017) and at the Department of Musicology of the Faculty of Arts of Masaryk University with the mixed choir Ensemble versus (since 2023), where he focuses on contemporary sacred music. He founded and directed the Šlapanice Church Choir (2014—2024) and now also serves as a singer and assistant choirmaster in the Czech Choir of Choirmasters (since 2023). He has also collaborated with other choirs such as Vox iuvenalis at the Brno University of Technology, Choirchestra, Bohemiachor, Schola brněnské mládeže and the Mixed Choir of JAMU. He participated in several choirmaster courses under the guidance of Czech and foreign lecturers (Andrea Brown, Václav Luks, Jaroslav Brych, Miriam Němcová, Josef Surovík, etc.). With the Cantate choir and the Vachův sbor moravských učitelek he successfully participated in several international competitions (e.g. European Youth Festival in Neerpelt, Belgium, Festival of Songs Olomouc, Slovakia Cantat, etc.). In addition to his choirmaster activities, he works as a liturgical organist in the Parish of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary in Šlapanice and in the Minorite Church of St. John in Brno.