Event date

20 / 07 / 2025 - Sunday 20:00

Event type

Site – specific

Song Recital: Cukrová, Willi

The unmistakable voice of mezzo-soprano Markéta Cukrová accompanied by Barbara Willi in the oldest church in South Bohemia will be enhanced by natural illuminations.

One of the most sought-after contemporary Czech mezzo-sopranos Markéta Cukrová will perform on Sunday evening in the oldest building in South Bohemia. Her unique and unmistakable voice will be accompanied by Barbara Maria Willi, a woman of many talents, playing the hammered dulcimer. The site-specific concert space of the church in Boletice will be filled with song repertoire from the pens of composers Antonín Dvořák, Hector Berlioz and Robert Schumann. It will take place in an intimate atmosphere enhanced by natural illumination. As well as extraordinary folk songs from ancient and contemporary times.

Artists

Markéta Cukrová - mezzo-soprano
Barbara Maria Willi - keyboard piano

Program

Antonín Dvořák: Songs in the National Tone op. 73
“Good Night” “Lamented Girl” “Oh, There's No One Here” “Hey, I've Got a Horse”

Robert Schumann: Kinderszenen for piano op. 15 (selection)
“Von fremden Ländeůrn und Menschen” “Kuriose Geschichte” “Träumeri”

Antonín Dvořák: four songs on texts by G. P. Moravsky Op. 2
“You Boiling Songs” “Oh, It Was a Beautiful Golden Dream” “My Heart Often” “Silence on the Mountains”

Hector Berlioz: Cycle Summer Nights (Les nuits d'été) opus 7
“Vilanelle” “Le spectre de la rose” “Sur les lagunes: lament” “Absence” “Au cimitere: clair de lune” “l'ile inconnue: barcarolle”

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Markéta Cukrová

Versatility and a sense of style. Reasons why mezzo-soprano Markéta Cukrová is a sought-after interpreter of music from the Middle Ages to the present. She collaborates with renowned early music ensembles (Mala Punica, Collegium Marianum, Collegium Vocale Gent, Collegium 1704, Orkiestra Historyczna) and modern orchestras led by the Czech Philharmonic. She has earned recognition for her interpretations of song repertoire accompanied by both hammered dulcimer and modern piano and has received numerous opera nominations. In addition to concerts, Markéta is also a teacher and regularly performs as a guest at the National Theatre in Prague, Brno and Ostrava. Last season she performed at the Berlin Staatsoper under the baton of Simon Rattle.

Markéta Cukrová
foto: Ilona Sochorová

Barbara Maria Willi

Innovative harpsichordist and soloist on the hammered dulcimer, organist, teacher, dramaturge, musical visionary and, last but not least, presenter. As this year’s re-elected Dean of the Faculty of Music at JAMU, Barbara Maria Willi is pushing the horizons of the music field, and thanks to her consistent work, the Department of Organ and Historical Performance, which she founded, is gaining an international reputation. Since 2014 she has been a guest professor at the University of the Artsin The Hague, the Netherlands. As a Czech citizen with Polish and German roots, she brings to the Czech environment the diversity and quality of the European cultural space. In the course of her international career, she has received numerous awards, including the German Music Critics’ Prize, the prestigious “Choc du monde de musique” and the French “Nobel Prize” in music, the “Diapason d’Or”. He tirelessly opens up repertoire resources, but also contacts with inspiring musical personalities, such as conductor Tomáš Netopil, singers Martina Janková and Markéta Cukrova, and violinist Josef Špáček. Barbara brings new perspectives to musical perception (she is, for example, the author of the detective story Generálbas or Who Murdered Counterpoint?) and often surprises with her distinctive interpretations. She is passionate about researching the songwriting of Czech composers of the 18th and 19th centuries.

Barbara Maria Willi
foto: Filip Hladík

St. Nicolas Church in Boletice

When you enter the church in Boletice, which stands in the middle of the cemetery on a high ground called Olymp, you will feel the atmosphere of tradition and history. The construction from the 12th century is part of the Military District of Boletice and is the oldest historic building in South Bohemia. It was Přemysl […]

Song Recital: Cukrová, Willi

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