Competition terms and conditions:
The expert jury for the third year of the competition consists of composer and guitarist Lukáš Sommer (CZ), composer and pianist Adam Skoumal (CZ), member of the board of trustees of the Music for Eternal Hope Foundation Martina Jankovská (CZ), dramaturge of the Eternal Hope Festival Kristina Vocetková (CZ), composer Yuval Shaked (IL), composer and pianist Lee Bradshaw (AUS), and pianist Johanna Haniková (CZ).
The results of the competition will be announced as part of the 9th annual Music Festival Eternal Hope in 2026 in Prague. Johanna Haniková will perform at this concert and thus also perform the winning composition.
Composer and guitarist Lukáš Sommer(CZ), composer and clarinettist Aleš Pavlorek (CZ), board member of the Music for Everlasting Hope Foundation Martina Jankovská (CZ), artistic director of the festival Kristina Vocetková (CZ), composer Yuval Shaked (IL), and members of the Belfiato Quintet (CZ).
Prizes for winners:
Please send the sheet music for the composition together with an electronic recording (MP3/WAV), along with your name and contact details (email and mobile phone number) in electronic form by 11:59 p.m. on October 31, 2025, to the email address irma.mrazkova@vecnanadeje.org.
For the sake of objective evaluation, please do not sign the sheet music. It will be marked with a numerical combination related to the date of submission.
Hope is an extremely interesting substance: immeasurable and intangible, but immensely necessary, especially in moments when we are in danger of losing it. Like love, we can give hope to others without having it ourselves, and conversely, we can have it even when it no longer exists in reality.
It is no coincidence that Dante Alighieri placed the inscription "Abandon hope, all ye who enter here" above the entrance to hell in The Divine Comedy, because the awareness that all fears, torments, and pains are eternal and that there is no hope for change or salvation is worse than death itself. In another hell—here on earth—they also worked with the substance of hope: above the entrance to the Auschwitz concentration camp, the Nazis had the inscription "Arbeit macht frei" ("Work sets you free") forged. Rudolf Vrba, one of the few who managed to escape from Auschwitz and pass on the message about the atrocities committed there, recalled in his later book how beneficially those three words affected him: they want work, they shall have it, so perhaps it won't be so bad, he thought. After an exhausting journey into the unknown, he reportedly felt a surge of energy – because he had been given hope. False hope, of course, but he and thousands of others who passed through that gate clung to it because people simply need hope.
And so it is wonderful and fitting that the foundation and festival established by Jiří Polák are called Eternal Hope. They primarily commemorate the so-called Terezín authors and other composers and their works created in times of oppression and hardship. The festival gives them hope that they will not be forgotten and that we will perhaps be able to learn from their suffering. Perhaps so: it really seems that the names of composers who were supposed to be silenced are being remembered and revived thanks to Eternal Hope, because there are more and more opportunities to hear the music of Pavel Haas, Gideon Klein, Hans Krása, Viktor Ullmann, and others, even outside the festival stages. This is good and hopeful news.
In addition to the obligatory good health, we should wish for hope more often and more hope, because in times when, for whatever reason, darkness descends on the soul, hope is needed like salt. See you at one of the concerts of the festival that does not forget this, the Eternal Hope Festival.
Eva Hazdrová Kopecká, musicologist
The ensemble Belfiato Quintet was formed in 2005. The quintet members - Oto Reiprich – flute, Jan Souček – oboe, Jiří Javůrek – clarinet, Jan Hudeček – bassoon, Kateřina Javůrková - French horn, are players from leading Czech orchestras (Czech Philharmonic, National Theatre Orchestra, PKF – Prague Philharmonia). They have also received awards at international music competitions, such as the ARD competition in Munich, Prague Spring, and Concertino Praga. Belfiato Quintet was awarded 1st prize from the Antonín Rejcha competition at the ISA Festival in Semmering, Austria. In 2011, the group won the 3rd prize at the Henri Tomasi International Wind Quintet Competition in Marseille (France) and the award for the best performance of a Tomasi composition. The ensemble performs regularly in the Czech Republic and abroad, appearing in concert seasons of the Czech Philharmonic, Czech Chamber Music Society, and chamber cycles of the Symphony Orchestra of the Capital City of Prague FOK and PKF – Prague Philharmonia, collaborating with Czech Television and Czech Radio. The group has been featured in the documentary "Czech Chamber Gold" by Theodora Remundová.
Aleš Pavlorek is a composer, clarinettist, and educator in Zlín. He was the 1st clarinettist of the Bohuslav Martinů Philharmonic and an active player in various chamber music ensembles (Wind Quintet FBM, Stadler Clarinet Quartet, and others). He has been engaged in compositional and arranging activities for thirty years. He mainly composes instrumental chamber music, but recently, he has also written pieces for wind and symphonic orchestras. His music is based on a tonal-modal principle. Although his work includes modern compositional techniques, the author always uses them only within a broader harmonic context.
Martina Jankovská has been leading the Everlasting Hope Festival since 2020, taking over after its late founder Jiří Polák (†2021). She is a board member of the Music for Everlasting Hope Foundation. Professionally a lawyer since 2014, she has operated her own office under the ExIure brand, previously working in international law firms in Brno and Prague. Art, whether musical, visual, or dramatic, is an integral part of her life and perception of beauty, uplifting the human spirit.
Kristina Vocetková is one of the most promising Czech cellists of her generation. In 2019, she founded the piano trio Trio Bohémo with violinist Matouš Pěruška and pianist Jan Vojtek. In a short time, they won several international prizes from competitions such as the Joseph Haydn International Chamber Music Competition in Vienna, the Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition in Australia, the Parkhouse Award in London, and the Joseph Joachim Chamber Music Competition in Germany. In 2023, the trio was awarded the Czech Chamber Music Society Prize and were guests on the In Tune program on BBC Radio 3. They have debuted at venues like London's Wigmore Hall, Musikverein in Vienna, and Stoller Hall in Manchester. They have appeared at festivals such as Prague Spring, Gent Festival van Vlaanderen in Belgium, and Schwarzwald Musikfest in Germany. The upcoming season includes several tours in the USA and Australia.
Yuval Shaked is an Israeli composer and musicologist. He studied at the Rubin Music Academy at Tel Aviv University and from 1981 to 1984 with Mauricio Kagel at the Musikhochschule Köln. From 1985 to 2005, he lectured at Kibbutzim College in Tel Aviv and from 2000 to 2023 at the University of Haifa (2011-15 head of the music department; 2016-2020 head of the art school). From 1990 to 1996, he served as editor of publications at the Israel Music Institute, and from 2000 to 2008, he led the Feher Jewish Music Center at the Diaspora Museum in Tel Aviv. In 2010, 2012, and 2014, he was a lecturer at the International Summer Courses for New Music in Darmstadt. He has produced numerous concerts and recordings. His articles have been published in several magazines, books, and encyclopedias. His compositions have been widely performed at renowned festivals.
Lukáš Sommer is one of the leading figures of the current generation of young composers. From 1998, he studied at the Conservatory in České Budějovice, guitar with Prof. Vilma Manová and composition with Prof. Jiří Churáček. In 2003, he studied for one year at the Prague Conservatory with Professor Věroslav Neumann. In 2009, he graduated from the Academy of Performing Arts and studied composition with Professor Ivan Kurz. He is the author of more than fifty opuses of various genres. Besides orchestral music (e.g., Cantata Thorns in the Veil, Concerto for Harp and Orchestra, Monolith for Wind Orchestra and Percussion Instruments, Concerto for Orchestra, and others), Sommer focuses on chamber music (e.g., Two String Quartets, Piano Trio "Xcape," Labyrinth - Sonata for Harpsichord, Gypsy and Odyssey). Another line of Sommer's work is vocal music - often using texts of contemporary poets (e.g., song cycle Headland, Floating Island, melodrama No One Has Caressed Me for a Long Time, Song of the Gallows, ABC). A special place among his works is occupied by the opera Ela, Hela, and Stop, a libretto by Václav Havel. He also composes works for children, specifically the children's opera Hercules and the musical Sindibad. His music has been performed by Sir Nicolas Daniel, Carlo Jans, Jana Boušková, Vilém Veverka, Pavel Šporcl, Jan Mikušek, Sebastien Bagnout, Jan Kučera, Sednunum Orchestra, Bremerhaven Orchestra, Symphony Orchestra of Czech Radio, Prague Philharmonic Choir, and others. Besides regular performances on the domestic scene, he has presented his music in more than 15 countries.
