Interview with Jan Simon, director of the Centre for Ensembles, Contests and Festivals of the Czech Radio

Could you please explain why the new Centre has been created at Czech Radio? What are its main tasks, and which is taxing you most at present?

The creation of the Centre for Ensembles, Contests and Festivals of the Czech Radio is just part of the transformation of Czech Radio into a modern public service media organisation. The aim of the management of Czech Radio is to use the potential that the institution has at its disposal to the maximum degree possible, and that also includes creative units. In our case, it involves the methodical merging of the management of different parts of the institution that in the nature of their activities are not programme units, or stations, but at the same time their work has a direct influence on the creation of programmes intended for broadcast. Prior to the establishment of the Centre, ensembles such as the PRSO, the Czech Radio Big Band, the Brno Radio Orchestra of folk instruments (BROLN), the Disman Children’s Radio Ensemble and the Children’s Choir operated independently of each other, and only worked together on joint projects haphazardly. I’d like to use this opportunity to align and link the work of the ensembles on common platforms. The same goes for the Concertino Praga, Concerto Bohemia and Prix Bohemia Radio contests. Lastly, the Centre will be a guarantor of several one-off projects, such as a literary contest to write a radio play held in conjunction with the upcoming 90th anniversary of the foundation of Czechoslovak Radio.

How has your position changed with regard to the Orchestra?

The establishment of the Centre certainly does not end my work with the PRSO, which is important to me. I will remain the guarantor of its activities and I will work with the chief conductor of the orchestra, other colleagues in its management and the musicians themselves to create the dramaturgy for season-ticket holder concerts, to prepare performances abroad and at home, and to take part in radio recordings. I am just a little less involved in everyday production work. My role will be more methodological in character, and of course I’ll have a key influence in questions of an artistic nature. I’m very glad that my colleague Ondřej Kotrč, who has worked with us as producer for four years, has taken on the position of manager of the ensemble.

How many people are working with you at present?

In the executive units ensuring the running of all of the Centre’s units it’s nine colleagues, while there are 117 employees in the artistic professions (artistic heads of individual ensembles, orchestra musicians, a dramaturge) and tens of artists working within the framework of regular part-time cooperation.

Will the linking of Czech Radio’s artistic activities produce any effects that will interest our long-term season-ticket holders? Can they expect any bonuses?

That’s one of the aims of the Centre. It’s not only a question of bonuses, however, even though our faithful supporters should, of course, receive invitations to laureate concerts of the Concertino Praga and Concerto Bohemia contests. Alongside continuing the tradition of open rehearsals, we want to launch, in connection with the renewal of recording at Studio 1 on Vinohradská St. and actually of the whole studio complex, a cycle for young listeners with young musicians. We’d like to put on theatre performances of the Disman Children’s Ensemble at Czech Radio, while contests held there should create a space for meetings between the professional and lay views of culture… The buildings of Czech Radio shouldn’t remain a mere workplace – they should become a social and cultural platform for a modern media organisation.

Naturally, I have to ask about the piano – are you still loyal to the instrument, or are you now leaving it to one side (no doubt with a guilty conscience)?

I’m still loyal. It may appear that I’ve to some extent “disappeared” from the piano scene. It’s true that for, I think, the fourth season I’ve decided not to take part in the season-ticket holder concerts of the PRSO. That’s been a deliberate aim, because I don’t regard it as a happy situation to appear at concerts that – to put it grandly – I organise (the main organiser is of course Czech Radio). That doesn’t, however, prevent my other solo activities. At the start of September I appeared at a Chopin recital in Warsaw, in October I’m “celebrating” principal conductor Lenárd’s round birthday with the PRSO at the Bratislava Music Festival, where I’ll play Ludwig van Beethoven’s Third Concerto, in November I’m performing Dvořák’s Piano Concerto several times in Spain, in Cairo and Alexandria in January I’ll be performing Johannes Brahms’s Second Concerto, in Zlín Chopin’s First…These are all concerts that Czech Radio isn’t organising. In any case, trust me when I say that after a day spent at the office it’s not always easy to find the moral and physical energy to sit at the piano and practice. But one thing is true: I still love music and it’s worth it to me to forego other pleasures in favour of the most beautiful language in the world.