The Academic Choir of VŠB – Technical University of Ostrava

The Academic Choir VŠB – Technical University of Ostrava was founded in 2007, when it was inaugurated on the academic ground by performing Mozart’s Missa Brevis C major (Spatzenmesse), cooperating with Camerata Janáček. Until then, the choir was known as Komorní Sbor EXIL (founded in 2000).

The choir gained numerous awards at home as well as abroad. During its existence, the choir released three CDs with selection of its repertoire. Beside concert activities in the Czech Republic and abroad, the choir regularly participates in international choral festivals, including the Festival of Renaissance Singing 2008 (Budapest, Hungary), Festa Academica 2009 (Praha, Czech Republic), International choral festival 2010 (Buenos Aires, Argentina).

The longest running performing and organizational experiences of the choir are centered on the International Choral Festival of Visegrad, Ostrava. The choir cooperated during the organization of the festivals Ostrava Zpívá 2010 and Festival of Male Choirs 2010. The choir belongs among the most prestigious academic choirs in the Czech Republic, being frequently awarded for the interpretation of Leoš Janáček’s compositions. In June 2011, the choir was awarded gold medals at the Festival of Choirs in Jihlava, Czech Republic and Praga Cantant 2011 (Praha, Czech Republic).

Jan Mlcoch is the choirmaster, artistic leader and founder of the Academic Choir of VŠB – Technical University of Ostrava and the second choirmaster of Chorus Ostrava. Mr. Mlcoch studied under the guidance of prof. Pivovarský. In 2000, he founded the Chamber Choir EXIL with which he achieved a number of notable successes in the Czech Republic as well as abroad, and which continues to perform under a new name: the Academic Choir of VŠB – Technical University Ostrava. He gained several awards for conducting, among which the award Choirmaster Junior 2010 is most noteworthy.

The skyline of Ostrava would surely impress every art-lover – gloomy industrial architecture side by side with serene facades of churches, most of the time shrouded in a faint haze and dominated by the typical tower of the New City Hall on the background of the Beskydy Mountains. Formerly known as a “Black City,” nowadays a dynamic and lively home to approximately 300,000 inhabitants. That's Ostrava, the capital of the Moravian-Silesian region in the north-eastern part of the Czech Republic. The city has a rich history of coal mining and steel industry. Vítkovice monuments, such as blast furnaces (nowadays serving as observation towers) or gasholder (rebuilt into an auditorium), the mining museum of Landek, Hlubina mine and others are just a few examples of how the industry can enrich the city’s culture. If you add the Silesian-Ostrava castle, zoo, numerous galleries, theatres and music clubs, universities, shopping malls, the unique architecture and the fascinating mountainous surroundings as well as numerous cultural events such as the well known music Festival Colours of Ostrava, you will get a modern, pulsating city worth living in.