ISSEM Valtice | 5.7. - 13. 7. 2025

The International Summer School of Early Music in Valtice is certainly one of the exceptional projects in our modern, changing and uncertain world that we wish would never end. At first glance, its 37th edition seems to smack of a certain routine to which we have somehow become accustomed. Nothing could be further from the truth! The somewhat inaccurate label of “early music” (in Czech stará hudba, literally „old music“) and its interpretation is something that is in fact always new, fresh and full of life. Something that requires the personal creativity of everyone involved. If we discover and develop it within ourselves, the ravages of time will have no effect on it (or us). As every year, we will be inspired in this “eternal” creativity by about thirty great Czech and international tutors, of whom he would like to highlight especially the new faces. Nele Vertommen from Netherlands will take the oboe class for the first time, and the lute class will also be taught for the first time by the great Cornelia Demmer from nearby Vienna. After many years of trying, this year we will be able to open a Baroque harp class, taught by Kateřina Ghannudi from Italy. In any case, I want to encourage anyone who would like to take a Baroque Theatre class with the extremely creative director Magdalena Švecová. The class is for adults of “all shades” – actors, but also singers or instrumentalists who can speak and are able to participate in a stage-theatrical event. There would be a place for almost everyone. This also fits perfectly with the intention of our final performance, that will be in the spirit of “Shades of Love or Playing with Fire”, in which the actors will join forces with the orchestra, dance and choir classes. On the other hand, “Magic and Enchantment” is the theme chosen by the new instructor for the youth drama class, Zuzana Švecová. This year would not be a celebration of early music if we did not remember G. P. Palestrina, to whom the opening concert of the Societas Incognitorum will be dedicated, but we will also discover a lot of 18th century music, whose world will be explored by Solamente naturali. In short, we certainly have a lot to look forward to!

Marek Štryncl
Artistic Director of ISSEM Valtice 2025