Festival of Songs Olomouc 2023

The 50th festival was opened by the Olomouc choirs of the BoDo Centre and ZUŠ Campanella Olomouc, the Ateneo Mixed Chamber Choir of Palacký University and the Chamber Choir of Lenka Dohnalová-Mlynářová. The concert closed with the premiere of the new festival anthem by Jan Vičar, Come Spring, sung by the combined choirs.

“The organisers asked me to write a closing, shared, theme song for the Festival of Songs Olomouc, and I accepted with great pleasure. For one thing, I am beginning to feel like the festival's longest-serving participant; for another, it brought back an extraordinary memory: forty years ago, at the final concert of the Festival of Songs in the Reduta on 11 September 1983, about 600 children from 13 choirs, four trumpeters, a pianist and a timpanist conducted by Ivan Sedláček performed my song ‘Na shledanou’ (Goodbye) to a text by Václav Fischer. The circular effect of sound and colour was unique and the overall impression unforgettable.” – Jan Vičar

The choir concert in the Olomouc-Chválkovice district offered a varied programme presenting the BRIOSO Children's Choir, the Polish Chór Ogólnokształcącej Szkoły Muzycznej I st. im. Stanisława Moniuszki and the vocal ensemble NoTimers.

The traditional concert closing the procession of St. Pauline during the Olomouc City Festivities featured the world premiere of Requiem for Peace in Ukraine by the Australian composer and experienced conductor David Slater. The composer set out to write an international work intended primarily for benefit concerts. It was performed by the Moravian Philharmonic Olomouc, the choir of the Janáček Conservatory in Ostrava and voice students of the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Ostrava, conducted by Pavel Šnajdr. The concert was also the first occasion to hear the renovated organ of St. Moritz Church.

The Saturday programme closed with an open-air performance of the rock oratorio Eversmiling Liberty by the choirs Ars Brunensis, Choirchestra and other participating choirs. The authors Jens Johansen and Erling Kullberg (Denmark) used Thomas Morell's libretto for George Frideric Handel's 1747 oratorio Judas Maccabaeus and combined the Baroque form with modern instruments and the idioms of popular music (rock, pop, jazz, swing, blues).