Prague – A double concert by the Ukrainian Ladies' Symphony Queens Orchestra and David Koller with the band opened the 6th edition of the Metronome Prague festival this evening. The three-day musical event at the Prague Exhibition Center will last until June 24. During four days, it will offer eight dozen concerts, twice as many as last year. Visitors will be able to choose from four outdoor and three indoor scenes. The organizers have added a new Beats for Metronome stage, which was created in cooperation with the Ostrava dance music festival Beats for Love.
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< p>At the beginning of the concert on the indoor stage of the Moon Club, where approximately two hundred people gathered, they showed a one-minute video showing the war conflict in Ukraine and the aid provided to the attacked country. At its Prague premiere, the 17-member Ukrainian symphony ensemble was led by its founder and conductor Aleksandra Korobka. The 37-year-old musician from Kyiv studied violin and conducting at the National Academy of Music of Ukraine and in 2020 founded a unique orchestra composed only of women. In Prague, the musicians offered a varied mix of adapted compositions from Ronald Binge's Elizabethan Serenade to Georges Bizet's Carmen to the hit of the electropop band Eurythmics Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) or the famous Wonderful Life performed by Louis Armstrong.
The performance of the Queens Orchestra, rewarded with long-lasting applause, ended with the Ukrainian national anthem. “Our repertoire includes many styles and directions. We play classical music in modern arrangements, we play rock, jazz and, of course, some romantic compositions as well. Currently, we have also included a lot of Ukrainian music in it. Although people they don't know, many hits were composed by Ukrainian composers, and it is a great honor and pleasure for us to be able to present them in other countries,” Korobka told the festival newsletter.
“Due to problems with the acoustics, we had to cancel a joint song with the Queens Orchestra,” lamented Koller at the start of the Kollerband concert. Koller is among the artists who often comment on social events. Among other things, he performed with the band in Prague at the commemoration of the first anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine or was involved in helping refugees on the Ukrainian-Slovak border. He supported Petr Pavel in the presidential elections and last September, before the second round of the Senate elections, he played at a concert in support of the President of the Senate Miloš Vystrčilo (ODS).
He started the performance with the newer song Spokojená, which was followed by the composition from 1990 Šrouby do heads from the repertoire of Koller's other band Lucie. Koller alternated between guitar and drums and offered the audience songs from the new album LP XXIII as well as old hits such as Chci zas v tobě spát or Gypsy love.
The main star of Thursday's Metronome Prague program will be the formation Jamiroquai, whose birth he was responsible for in 1992 British musician Jason Kay. He will perform at 9:30 p.m. The site will be open from 4:00 p.m. The music production will be started half an hour later by the singer Elly, whose real name is Eliška Tunková. The organizers have again prepared domestic music specials. Among those on Thursday will be the Monkey Business Spexial project with guests Dan Bárta, Ota Klempíř and Michael Viktořík from J.A.R. Metronome Prague also includes an accompanying program called Metronome Fair. It includes outdoor installations, film productions and presentations of the activities of non-profit organizations.
