Reporter: Kurt Gottschalk
'EXCLUSIVE: Jean Derome, Scott's Trombone and 'Art of the Fugue' -- Kurt Gottschalk's Weekend in Montreal
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'EXCLUSIVE: Kurt Gottschalk's Student Dispatches from Ostrava Days 2015
Besides being a festival of contemporary composition the likes of which isn't often seen this side of the Atlantic, the Czech Republic's biennial Ostrava Days plays host to a two-week institute for composers and performers, where students get the opportunity to workshop with and have their works reviewed by some of the the major figures invited to the nine days of concerts, which follow on the heels of the institute. But once the festival proper is underway, such hierarchies evaporate, as students perform with and have their work presented alongside the headliners. -
'EXCLUSIVE: Kurt Gottschalk's Chamber Dispatches from Ostrava Days 2015
Ostrava, a smallish Czech city of some 300,000 people about 10 kilometers from the Polish border, hosts the biennial Ostrava Days, a small festival, itself, but with audiences usually numbering a couple hundred. Both city and fest think big. In recent years, Ostrava has seen a remarkable amount of development via commerce and construction, as well as a laudable push to renovate the industrial facilities if its mining past into theaters, galleries and other art spaces. For its part, Ostrava Days is oriented toward big music--the 2015 edition even featuring a night of works for three orchestras--all the while making room for smaller-scale compositions.