Čeština

When a person is his own, he has nothing to lose

31. 8. 2020

The young conductor Jana Mimrová will conduct the opening concert of Everlasting Hope

It has its middle name after the patron saint of music. But not only that, it determined the career of the twenty-six-year-old conductor Jana Cecilia Mimrová. She was born in Česká Třebová, where she grew up in a musical environment - her father is a violinist and conductor, her mother a pianist, both also her teachers. According to her, she had been sewing with her since time immemorial , as soon as there was music. From the age of four, she devoted herself intensively to piano and ballet. "My parents often took me to symphony concerts, Smetana's Litomyšl or Brno as a child, and there I started flirting with the idea that I could make that amazing music from the position of conductor," says Jana.    

They did not discourage her from conducting, on the contrary. She first tried conducting at the age of thirteen. At this time she also performed for the first time with the Jaroslav Kocian Chamber Orchestra. She continued her studies at the Pardubice Conservatory with Tomáš Židek. In 2016, as the first conductor in the history of the conservatory, she won the competition for the Hradec Králové Philharmonic Orchestra, with which she performed at her graduation concert.

Since October 2015, she has been a student of the conductor's department of the Faculty of Music at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague in the class of the prominent Czech conductor Tomáš Koutník. She finished her bachelor's degree program with a concert in the Besední dům in Brno with the Moravian Philharmonic in Olomouc, with which she performed Antonín Dvořák's Symphony No. 6. As part of her master's degree program in February 2020, she organized a symphony concert under her own direction, at which she performed Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy's Violin Concerto in E minor with renowned Czech violinist Čeňek Pavlík.   

So far, Jana Mimrová has performed at the North Bohemian Philharmonic in Teplice, the South Bohemian Chamber Philharmonic and the West Bohemian Symphony Orchestra in Mariánské Lázně. At the end of 2018, he was given the opportunity to collaborate with the Prague Chamber Philharmonic. And since August this year, she has had the biggest opportunity so far: she works as an assistant to the music director Karel-Heinz Steffens at the State Opera. Her main activity will be work on the Czech-German project "Musica non grata", which is dedicated to a number of composers persecuted by the Nazis. The audience will hear her at the opening concert of the Everlasting Hope festival, where she will conduct the State Opera Orchestra in the works of the so-called Terezín composers Gideon Klein, Pavel Haas and Viktor Ullmann. "Assisting at the State Opera is wonderful. I had an amazing opportunity to observe the rehearsals and conduct the concert myself. I can learn, but I can also work, and that is the most that can be for a young conductor, ”he praises the collaboration with the conductor Steffens .     

"I tend mainly to the symphonic repertoire, I would like to gradually get 'into circulation' with orchestras," dreams the young musician. At the same time, he wants to be flexible and "know" the opera, as is common in the world. It is essential for her to master the instrument well, so in addition to the compulsory piano, she attends private violin lessons with Čeňek Pavlík.   

Unlike instrumentalists, who are usually "finished" players at twenty-five, Jana realizes how much he still has to learn. "It is necessary to know the context of the song perfectly. Know what is being played in the world and how. I go to see the rehearsals of conductors of Prague orchestras, my favorite abroad is definitely Manfred Honeck , "he says. And even though he has to involve his head mainly in conducting, as he says, he is said to enjoy the emotions from the music in the same way as the listeners during the concert.   

She did not meet any contempt for her youth or the fact that she was a woman with the orchestras. "The most important thing is to be yourself. Any pose or falsehood is recognized during the first test. The players claim that they know what a conductor is, as soon as he goes from the dressing room to the counter, "smiles the long-haired blonde. "When you're natural, you have nothing to lose," he explains why he's not afraid to take the podium against experienced players. 

Jana MimrováJana Mimrová

Festival partners

Realizováno ve spolupráci s Národním divadlem v rámci projektu Musica non grata s podporou Velvyslanectví Spolkové republiky Německo Praha

Musica non grata

General Partner

ALEF NULA, a.s.

Festival Partners

PRE
Ministerstvo kultury ČR
Státní fond kultury
CYRRUS
RSBC

Supporters

Accolade
Městská část Praha 1
CertiCon
Hotel Rott

Ve spolupráci

Polský institut Praha

Záštitu převzali

Ministerstvo pro místní rozvoj ČR
ministryně pro místní rozvoj, 
paní Klára Dostálová
Ministerstvo kultury
ministr kultury, 
pan Lubomír Zaorálek
Poslanecká sněmovna Parlamentu České republiky
předseda Poslanecké sněmovny Parlamentu ČR,
pan Radek Vondráček
Senát Parlamentu České republiky
předseda Senátu Parlamentu ČR, pan Miloš Vystrčil
Senát parlamentu ČR
předseda Senátu Parlamentu ČR,
pan Miloš Vystrčil
Velvyslanectví Spolkové republiky Německo Praha
Velvyslanec SRN v Praze,
Dr. Christoph Israng
Ustavni soud
předseda Ústavního soudu, 
pan Pavel Rychetský
Ústecký kraj
hejtman Ústeckého kraje, 
pan Jan Schiller
MMR ČR
ministryně pro místní rozvoj, paní Klára Dostálová
Ministerstvo kultury ČR
náměstek ministra kultury,
 pan Milan Němeček

Media Partners

Český rozhlas D-dur

Partner of the lecture on 1/3/2023

Winternitz villa

Partner of the concert on 8/3/2023

Stadler-trierNKČRCharitaAlzheimer Home Pitkovice

Concert on 21. 2. 2024 under the auspices of
U.S. Embassy in The Czech Republic

US Embassy

Partner of the concert on 24. 2. 2024
Jewish Museum in Prague

Židovské muzeum

Partner of the concert on 14. 3. 2024
National Library of the Czech Republic

Národní knihovna České republiky

Partner of the concert on 27. 3. 2024
C. Bechstein Pianocentrum Prague

C. Bechstein

The concert on 21. 4. is held in cooperation
with Volman Villa

Volmanova vila

Thank you to

members of the Supporters Club
Personal Connect s.r.o.

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© Nadační fond Hudba pro Věčnou naději
Varšavská 714/38, Vinohrady, 120 00 Prague 2
Contact e-mail: info@vecnanadeje.org
+420 721 585 178 (Irma Mrázková, director of the festival)