Agon Orchestra

Limbo I.
prelature

Classification

Artist

Artist

Agon Orchestra

Project

Hermit FoundationLimbo I

Venue

Plasy Monastery

Petr Kofroň - 
Mirek Šimáček - el. guitar
Petr Křečan -
Ivan Bierhanzl - bass quitar

The Agon Orchestra (originally Agon Ensemble) was founded in 1983 as a platform for the emergent generation of young Czech composers whose activities developed independently of the then cultural establishment by Petr Kofroň, Martin Smolka, Miroslav Pudlák and others. In the 90s, it conducted a number of thematic projects, mapping the contemporary Czech and world avant-garde from the 1960s to current post-modernist tendencies. Including regular performances in Prague, Agon performed over 200 performances around the world, mostly at international festivals of contemporary music, and made a number of recordings for radio, television and various record companies.

Petr Kofroň (born 1955 in Prague) established an ensemble for contemporary music in 1983 known as the Agon ORCHESTRA, of which, in the 90s, he became the exclusive programme director and conductor. The orchestra is geared toward the Czech avant-garde music of the eighties (J. Berg. Z. Vostřák, Jan Klusák, R. Komorous, M. Kopelent), contemporary alternative Czech music (J. Adamík, P. Graham, P. Kofroň, M. Smolka, M. Chadima. M. Grygar, M. Šimáček, V. Havel, F. Topol, M. Nejtek, M. Ivanovič, I. Acher) as well as world contemporary music (J. Cage, S. Reich, P. Glass, J. Adams, F. Zappa, E. Sharp, J. Zorn, A. Coleman, M. Gordon, D. Lang, H. Goebbels, B. Bargeld). Petr Kofroň has conducted the Agon ORCHESTRA both on prestigious stages in Europe - Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, Hungary, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Holland, Denmark. Spain, Italy, England (in particular he attended the Warsaw Autumn, Budapest Spring Festival, Berliner Festwochen, London’s The South Bank Centre, Mousontum in Frankfurt) - in the USA (especially in the Lincoln Center in New York), in Canada (in particular at Musique Actuelle in Victoriaville), as well as on local stages (repeatedly at the Prague Spring Festival, the Bratislava Melos-Ethos, the Brno International Music Festival, etc.) He has collaborated with the Prague City Orchestra, the Prague Chamber Philharmonic, the Talich Orchestra, always with special projects of music of 20th century. The Agon ORCHESTRA is based in Prague's theatre ARCHA, where the Agon ORCHESTRA annually presented a cycle of four concerts of their new material.

Miroslav Šimáček (born in Prague, 1956) is a musician, composer and publisher. He has collaborated with many prominent personalities in music, visual art, journalism, literature, film, technology and therapeutic communities. At the turn of the 1970s and 1980s he was a prominent participant of the Czech alternative music scene: Expanze (1977-9), Kilhets (1979-80, 5CD Kilhets, Black Point, 2008), (Autentycký z Gokytnan) and developed both written and conceptual, concrete and electronic music, mostly interpreted from graphic partitures. Since the mid-1980s, he was part of the Agon Orchestra (CD Red and Black, Audio Ego, 1997). His compositions were featured at concerts and festivals in a number of countries (Bang On A Can Marathon in New York City, FIMAV in Victoriaville, Canada, Evening of New Music in Bratislava, Schaubühne Lindenfels in Leipzig, Audio Art in Krakow, Kunsthalle Krems in Austria, Warsaw Autumn Festival in Posk, New Music Marathon in Prague, New Music Concerts in Toronto, Roulette in New York City, Musica Ficta Forum in Vilnius, NYYD Festival in Tallinn, Gele Zaal Gent in Belgium, etc.) and were shot for various radio and television companies (Czech Television, Slovak Radio, DUNA TV Budapest, CBC Montreal, Deutschland Radio Berlin, Polish Radio, Lithuanian Radio, Estonian Radio, Deutschland Funk Cologne). In the 1990s, he was active as a graphic designer: editor of the magazine Respekt, co-founder of the post-revolutionary face of Revolver Revue, he was editor and publisher of his own art journal Konserva / Na Hudbu and the book Graphic score (made together with Petr Kofroň and Martin Smolka), he developed a new outlook of Literarní noviny with the supplement Konserva / Na Hudbu (1996), posters of New Music Society, One Woman Press, etc. At the turn of the century, he devoted himself to interactive concepts in multimedia projects - (Limbo Festival  at Center for Metamedia Plasy), Mäckleburgisches Künstlerhaus (Schloss Plüschow), Festival Alternative (Archa Theater), Prague Quadrennial, Cimelice Center of Contemporary Art, Festival of Poor Music (Glass Meadow), Hidden Levels of Consciousness (Archa Theater), Festival Enter multimediale. He composed the soundtrack for the movie "Divoké včely" (Wild Bees) by Czech director Bohdan Sláma.

Ivan Bierhanzl (born 1958 in Prague) is Czech bass player (double bass, bass guitar) and music producer. Ivan was member of different ensambles: Malá česká muzika Jiřího Pospíšila, Agon Orchestra, DekadenFabrik, DG 307, Ora Pro Nobis, or The Plastic People of The Universe.

Petr Křečan

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Agon Orchestra: Limbo I.