Concept Art Orchestra

Concept Art Orchestra is a jazz big band composed of Czech and international musicians, led by the trumpeter, conductor and composer Štěpánka Balcarová. The band’s uniqueness lies in its focus on the interpretation of new music by a group of contemporary Czech composers, the Prague Six, whose members are Luboš Soukup, Tomáš Sýkora, Martin Brunner, Vít Křišťan, Jan Jirucha and Štěpánka Balcarová. The band’s 2015 album The Prague Six received the Anděl Award in the jazz category and it also topped the Czech Jazz Vintage survey by Czech jazz critics and promoters for the same year. The orchestra’s second album, Christmas for Adults (2018), received a nomination in the jazz category of the Anděl Awards and the same is true of their latest studio recording from 2020, an album comprised of the large suite 100 YEARS, which is a musical tribute to the centenary of the foundation of Czechoslovakia. Recently, the orchestra has introduced a number of works in concert premieres, including Civilizační mantry (Civilization Mantras) by Oldřich Janota and a Luboš Soukup (2020), Concerto for Piano and Jazz Orchestra by Vít Křišťan (2019) and Musorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition in the arrangements of Jan Jirucha (2018).