The Kutná Hora International Music Festival has to its credit a record of 11 remarkably successful editions. It has been taking justified pride in achieving both an amazingly high attendance, and notably, an impressive artistic standard. The Festival´s programme, which has been regularly taken meticulous care of by the cellist, Jiří Bárta, stands out for its focus on creativity. Jiří Bárta has earned a good deal of respect in this field elsewhere as well, e.g. conceiving the programme for the Prague Dvořák Festival in 2014.

Apart from chamber music, the event takes in various other musical genres, achieving a sensitive symbiosis of classical repertoire with jazz, rock and other idioms. The programme invariably includes major contemporary projects, a feature that has proved particularly attractive for its audiences. Consequently, Kutná Hora has been welcoming ever larger numbers of visitors from the Czech Republic and from abroad. Many of these international and domestic visitors have in the process become accustomed to booking weeklong stays at Kutná Hora to attend all of the Festival concerts, an experience which gives them the best chance of fully appreciating the event´s unique programme and atmosphere.

For the participating musicians, the Festival week, packed with intensive creative involvement, naturally represents an immensely demanding task. While each concert has a distinct one-of-a-kind atmosphere, the programme´s common denominator is the sheer excellence of all artists marked by their pure joy of music making. All of the Festival productions are rehearsed and prepared on site, in Kutná Hora. This fact turns the event´s fascinating historical concert venues (Church of St. Barbara, Corpus Christi Chapel, Church of St. John Nepomucene, Church of the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary in Bohdaneč, Kutná Hora Music and Arts School, Church of St. James or Jesuit College) which have been inseparably linked with the Festival serving to enhance its appeal, into a single busy music workshop drawing the audiences into the actual process of the concerts´ making, thereby elevating the Festival onto a level setting it apart from standard concert productions, rendering palpable the bonds of friendship among the players relishing the experience of making music together. This format is something that has worked brilliantly at Kutná Hora.

The Festival is destined not only for the dedicated circle of chamber music lovers; it also aims at those listeners who are still on their way towards appreciating classical music. This latter goal is indeed being accomplished with remarkable aplomb, as witnessed by the Festival auditoriums filled by members of all generations, including very young people.

As its previous editions, the 12th Kutná Hora International Music Festival 2019 will once again take the form of a creative workshop. Its programme will be centered around chamber music, and like in previous years, it will include contemporary works, as well as 20th-century music.

On the whole, the Festival is likewise a major social occasion whose status has been enhanced by the regular presence at several concerts of Mrs Livie Klausová who has acted as the event´s official patroness. The concerts are attended by the mayor of Kutná Hora, and by numerous ambassadors to the Czech Republic.

The promotion and publicity campaign related to the Festival reaches out beyond the regional borders. Apart from the municipalities of Kutná Hora, Čáslav and Kolín, it also covers Prague and the rest of the Czech Republic. The event´s media coverage has regularly been broad. Czech Television has each year brought a special report on the Festival (see www.mfkh.cz).

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