The Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, CESNET and Belgium’s Luca School of Arts to salute the Czech Presidency of the Council of the EU with an unorthodox concert

The Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, CESNET and Belgium’s Luca School of Arts to salute the Czech Presidency of the Council of the EU with an unorthodox concert

The Czech Republic will preside the Council of the European Union for six months beginning on 1 July. Multiple cultural and social events are being prepared to mark the occasion. The Academy of Performing Arts in Prague along with CESNET and Belgium’s Luca School of Arts have organised one such event.

Musicians from the Music and Dance Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (HAMU) and the Luca School of Arts in Belgium will perform a concert featuring selections by Antonín Dvořák, Leoš Janáček, Bohuslav Martinů, Piet Swerts and Miloslav Kabeláč simultaneously in the Martinů Hall and the Kamermuziekzaal in Leuven on 3 July 2022 from 7:30 pm. Both venues will be interconnected using unique technology provided by CESNET. The audience in the Martinů Hall will see and hear everything that happens on stage in Belgium, and vice versa. “This is a unique occasion. HAMU musicians will play in our hall and the Luca School musicians will perform in a hall in Belgium. They will be able to see and hear each other thanks to CESNET technology, which is unique in that it provides connection with no perceived latency, which is otherwise common with online broadcasts,” says Jan Hančil, Vice-Rector of AMU for International Relations. Sven Ubik, the initiator of the event and a CESNET expert, adds: “The solution that we have developed will provide a low latency audiovisual connection of both sites using the MVTP (Modular Video Transmission Platform) hardware. Thanks to this technology, we will transmit high-definition image and sound with minimum latency, enabling musicians to play together remotely and offering the audiences a unique experience. The latency of the transmission between the Czech Republic and Belgium will be approximately 12 ms, of which 9 ms is attributable to the network and 3 ms to our transmission technology.” The event programme was prepared by clarinet player Irvin Venyš, a HAMU teacher and the Director of the Bohuslav Martinů Foundation. “The concert dramaturgy was originally intended to feature Czech authors exclusively, but we were happy to accept the offer for including a Belgian piece with its author playing the piano. On both  sides, excellent artists, students as well as teachers, will play their parts.”

The concert in this unusual setting will offer the audiences a selection from Dvořák’s Piano Trio No. 4 (Dumky), a selection from his Gypsy Melodies, the Interaction for a Woodwind Quintet and Piano by Piet Swerts, the Czech Rhapsody H.307 and the Serenade for Two Clarinets, a Violin, a Viola and Cello H. 334 by Bohuslav Martinů, and, last but not least, organ compositions – the Fantasy by Miloslav Kabeláč and the Postludium by Leoš Janáček. The concert will also be broadcast live by Czech TV’s iVysílání, where it will be available after the event for streaming. 

Performers:
Music and Dance Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (HAMU) (CZ)

Martin Kasík + Daniel Matejča + Anna Paulová + Štěpán Rímský + Pavel Svoboda + Irvin Venyš

Kateřina Škardová + Natália Zmrhalová

LUCA School of Arts (BE)

Berten D’Hollander + Geert De Bièvre + Anthony Devriendt + Maximilian Lohse + Bram Nolf + Timur Sergeyenia + Piet Swerts + Marc Tooten + Lilia Umnova

CESNET developed the MVTP technology in cooperation with partners as part of projects supported by the Technology Agency of the Czech Republic under the ÉTA (TL01000106) and TREND (FW01010230) programmes.

The Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (AMU) is the largest art school in the Czech Republic and its broad range of art programmes make it a unique education and art institution in the Central European region. AMU offers education in drama, film and TV art and in music and dance. The school’s intrinsically international nature and openness provide a platform for an enriching exchange of creative and teaching experience and ideas and for maintaining and developing a portfolio of AMU’s programmes in foreign languages. AMU’s offer of programmes in English for international applicants is being expanded on an ongoing basis. For more visit www.amu.cz

CESNET was founded in 1996 by universities and the Czech Academy of Sciences. It is engaged in research and development of information and communication technologies, building and developing a national CESNET e-infrastructure for research and education. Thanks to its research activities and achievements, it represents the Czech Republic in important international projects, especially in building the GÉANT pan-European network and grid projects (EGI.eu), and participates actively in their implementation. The association is also working on the use of high-speed networks for sharing multimedia data, both synchronously in the form of video conferencing and shared applications, and asynchronously in the form of streaming. Since December 2020, CESNET represents the Czech Republic in the international association dealing with the open science paradigm – EOSC AISBL. For more visit www.cesnet.cz

LUCA School of Arts is the only university college in Flanders exclusively dedicated to art and design, making it unique in the region. The art school combines the strengths and expertise of five renowned Flemish higher education institutions for art and design, spread across Brussels, Genk, Ghent and Leuven. Most of the programmes are taught in Dutch, but LUCA offers six full-English MA programmes on its campuses in Brussels and Leuven. For more visit www.luca-arts.be