From 14 to 17 May 2026, the Visiting Program Contemporary Music Munich took place in Munich, organised by Musikbüromuc in cooperation with Pro Helvetia, Austrian Music Export and SoundCzech. The program offered insight into Munich’s contemporary and experimental music scene, its venues, artists and working models. It also included visits to the program of Münchener Biennale, a festival focused on new music theatre.
Why does this format matter?
Contemporary music often grows through long-term relationships — between artists, ensembles, curators, festivals and institutions. That is why this type of program is important for SoundCzech. It allows Czech professionals to experience a scene directly in its own environment, share knowledge and build contacts that may later develop into new collaborations.
The Czech delegation in Munich presented the scene in its full range: from composition and performance to ensemble practice and festival dramaturgy. Alongside independent artists, the delegation also included important platforms outside Prague, such as Brno Contemporary Orchestra and MusicOlomouc. This diversity shows that Czech contemporary music is not just a collection of individual names, but a living ecosystem of people and organisations creating space for new music at home and abroad.
Who was part of the Czech delegation?
Eva Kesslová / BERG Orchestra
Eva Kesslová took part in the program as CEO and co-curator of BERG Orchestra. The orchestra is one of the key Czech ensembles focused on contemporary music and interdisciplinary projects. It has long been commissioning and presenting new works by Czech composers in world premieres; almost 300 new works have been created on its commission.
BERG also expands the idea of where and how contemporary music can be experienced. In addition to concert halls, it presents projects in industrial spaces, galleries, a crematorium or an unfinished Prague metro station, and connects music with contemporary dance, experimental theatre, film and visual art. In Munich, BERG brought the perspective of an ensemble that actively places contemporary music in new contexts.
Karolína Štorková / Brno Contemporary Orchestra
Karolína Štorková represented Brno Contemporary Orchestra, an ensemble founded in 2011 with the aim of presenting contemporary international music in Czechia and Czech music abroad. BCO also works with overlaps into 20th-century music and has long shown that contemporary music does not have to remain limited to a narrow specialist environment.
An important part of BCO’s work is dramaturgy that connects music with other art forms - spoken word, dance, film, visual art or architecture. Within the delegation, BCO therefore represented not only the Brno perspective, but also an approach that understands contemporary music as an open space for new formats, collaborations and audiences.
Marek Keprt / MusicOlomouc / Lichtzwang
Marek Keprt is a composer, pianist, curator and director of the MusicOlomouc festival. He is also the artistic director of the Olomouc-based contemporary music ensemble Lichtzwang. His participation in the program connected several layers of contemporary music practice: composition, performance, festival dramaturgy and ensemble work.
MusicOlomouc was founded in 2009 and focuses on progressive contemporary art music, Czech and international works, exploratory dramaturgy and world premieres. Selected festival concerts are recorded by Czech Radio and broadcast on ČRo Vltava’s Futurissimo program. Marek Keprt is also connected with Lichtzwang, an ensemble founded in 2016 to support Czech contemporary music and encourage the creation of new works for unusual instrumental combinations. The Olomouc part of the delegation highlighted the important role that smaller, long-term active scenes can play in contemporary music.
Vi Huyen Tranová
Vi Huyen Tranová took part in the program as a composer and performer. She works under the project dējāvi, which explores sound and scent - forms that expand musical creation towards space, physicality and sensory perception. She brought a strongly authorial and performative perspective on contemporary music to the Czech delegation.
Wider audiences also know her as a key figure of the project Viah. The project moves between pop, electronics, club energy, personal expression and strong visual identity. In 2019, Viah won Radio Wave’s Czeching and performed at festivals including Sziget, Colours of Ostrava and Waves Vienna. In the context of the Munich program, Vi Huyen Tranová represented a creative approach that naturally connects contemporary music with electronics, performance and experimental work with sound.
Milli Janatková took part in the program as a composer and performer. Her work has long connected music, voice, visual art and authorial performance; alongside singing, she works with guitar, percussion, drums and loopers. This interdisciplinary position makes her a distinctive figure on the Czech scene, moving beyond one genre or discipline.
Her work also has an international reach — she has performed in a number of European and non-European countries, including India, Nepal, Denmark, France, Greece and Germany, and has released four solo albums. She has received awards including the LIT Talent Music Awards, The Independent Music Awards and the Classic Prague Awards in the Crossover category. Recently, she has also been working on her new project IN RHYTHM.
Meetings that continue beyond the program
The Visiting Program Contemporary Music Munich showed how valuable it is to encounter a scene directly in its own environment — not only through concerts and the official program, but also through personal meetings with local artists, curators, organisers and representatives of Munich’s contemporary music scene as part of the Meet the Locals format. For the Czech delegation, it was an opportunity to present their own work, learn about different working models, share experience and build contacts that may remain relevant long after the program itself.
Many thanks to Musikbüromuc, Pro Helvetia, Austrian Music Export, the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts, Munich Biennale, the Czech Centre Munich and all participating professionals for their openness, energy and space for dialogue. Those who would like to dive deeper into Czech contemporary composed music can continue with the Czech Music Information Centre brochure Contemporary Composed Music in the Czech Republic 2025, compiled by Adam Riethof with an introductory text by Petr Bakla.