It’s the May holidays, and as usual, I’m getting ready to move from Prague to my summer home. Moving is wearing me out again this time. So I made myself some herbal tea, settled down by the window in the warmth of the first rays of sunshine, and just then the notes of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue came on the radio. This brought back memories of the pleasant moments I experienced over the past three months thanks to the Věčná naděje festival.
Over the course of its existence, the Eternal Hope Festival has grown from a purely concert-based showcase into a multi-genre cultural and social event. From time to time, it ventures out of the capital and visits other locations in various forms. It has, however, remained true to its mission of commemorating the horrors of the Holocaust in the hope that they will be permanently replaced by a world without violence.
For the February opening concert of the festival’s spring season, we headed to the Suk Hall at the Rudolfinum in Prague. Austrian pianist Gottlieb Wallisch, known worldwide for his unique recordings of all of Beethoven’s piano concertos on period instruments, performed works by Weinberger, Hába, Schulhoff, and Grosz. The following day, as part of the festival, he held a full-day master class for several students at the Austrian Cultural Forum.
The March concert featuring Jan Petryk (tenor), Johanna Haniková (piano), and the Ineo Quartet took place at Prague’s Spanish Synagogue in an unusually festive atmosphere. During the concert, the winner of the third annual composition competition was announced. This year, a seven-member jury evaluated 23 submitted works from five countries. The award, accompanied by a cash prize, went to Pavel Duda (*1999) for his piano composition *Light at the End of the Waves*. A graduate of the Janáček Conservatory in Ostrava and Prague’s HAMU, he explores many musical styles, ranging from contemporary classical music, jazz, and funk to progressive metal, both as a listener and a performer.
We attended the third concert in March, featuring songs by “Terezín” composers and their contemporaries, performed by faculty members of the Teplice Conservatory, Petr Matuszek (baritone) and Jiří Knotte (piano), in the historic hall of Libeň Castle in Prague. The concert was dedicated to two natives of Libeň who experienced the Terezín ghetto at a very young age, and this year we are commemorating milestones in their lives. Writer Arnošt Lustig would have turned 100, and historian Erik Polák died thirty years ago. As part of the activities of the Music for Eternal Hope Foundation and the Arnošt Lustig Foundation, an exhibition titled “I Want to Live Where I Love It” at the Velký mlýn is also dedicated to their life stories; it will run until mid-June.
At their April concert, the musicians of the Pavel Bořkovec Quartet delighted us with compositions by Maurice Ravel, Emil František Burian, and Erich Wolfgang Korngold. The organizers then surprised us by holding the concert in the charming setting of the Coal Mill and Boiler House in Libčice nad Vltavou. Both buildings are part of the former screw factory complex, founded in 1872. The renovation was undertaken by architect Patrik Hoffman, whose sensitive adaptation was awarded the 2013 Grand Prix of Architects prize for exemplary reconstruction of an industrial building. Today, the buildings serve as a cultural, social, and creative center.
We were overcome with emotion at the end of the spring portion of the festival during an original singspiel, a musical-theatrical genre combining song with spoken word. Mendele Lohengrin by composer Evgeni Orkin and librettist Martin Valdés-Stauber is inspired by a short story by Heinrich York-Steiner from 1898. It was created last year as a project for the Jewish Chamber Orchestra Munich under the direction of Daniel Grossmann. The story of a poor musician who succumbs to the magic of Wagner’s music opens up space not only for reflection on the Jewish experience in the modern world, but also for a more general contemplation of the experience of moving between different musical worlds.
As a token of gratitude to its long-time supporters and members of the Supporters’ Club, the Eternal Hope Festival organizes gatherings with interesting thematic focuses that extend beyond the realm of music. Earlier this year, we met in Brno at the exhibitions of the Museum of Decorative Arts, part of the Moravian Gallery. In seven exhibition halls, we admired the clothing designs of the internationally renowned artist and fashion designer Liběna Rochová, a professor at Prague’s UMPRUM. The artist herself guided us through the exhibition of more than 130 models, dozens of pieces of jewelry, accessories, and unique archival materials.
Other activities associated with the Eternal Hope Festival also demonstrate that its executive director, Irma Mrázková, dramaturge Kristina Vocetková, and producer Šárka Vlnasová—under the leadership of Martina Jankovská, a member of the board of trustees of the Music for Eternal Hope Foundation—devote great attention to the festival’s supporters, subscribers, and sponsors. They carefully prepare information for them on the website well in advance, publish a high-quality program catalog, and send them an internal newsletter. Social media is not neglected either.
Among the “non-musical” highlights, there are now stories of notable figures connected not only to Terezín, the war, and the Shoah, but also other remarkable tales. One of the newest stories is dedicated to George Thomas Drost, a fellow Czech from Brno who now lives in Chicago and whose ancestors were interned in the Terezín ghetto during World War II. Unlike George’s parents, they were not so fortunate and perished. George has joined our festival’s Supporters’ Club.
From the above, it is clear why we are looking forward to more interesting experiences during the fall portion of the Eternal Hope festival. It begins with SongsWe Carry, a joint project by British Jewish singer and multi-instrumentalist Ana Silvera and Palestinian oud player and singer Saied Silbak. We will meet after the summer break on September 26, 2026, at 7:00 PM at Jazz Dock on the Smíchov waterfront along Janáčkovo nábřeží in Prague.
This will be followed by a performance by the young oboist Štěpánka Andělová at St. Lawrence Church on November 25.
We look forward to seeing you there.
In memory of Mgr. Svatopluk Jedlička
