Cork Choral festival will call to Lifetime Lab with the Ondrasek Youth Choir offering a special performance on Thursday 29th April at 11.00am.The performance is open to the public and free of charge.

At home, the choir works with many major Czech composers (Otmar Mácha, Petr Eben, Ilja Hurník, Antonín Tučapský). Ondrášek has become a notable promoter of choral singing, and the choir organises musical programmes for children and young people, workshops for young conductors and, since 1996, a regular nationwide children’s choir competition.  Over the 40 years, Ondrášek has become an inseparable part of musical life in the region of Nový Jičín.  The concerts of the choir as a whole, i.e. performed by all sections of the choir, and New Year’s concerts, where the best of Czech and world’s ensembles, orchestras and interprets are presented, rank among the genuine cultural events of the town.Since its beginnings Ondrášek has worked with radio and television studios.  The choir has shot several series of musical youth programmes, for Czech Television and also recorded 6 CDs.

Members of Ondrasek Youth Choir from the Czech Republic

In 1992, Josef Zajiček, one of the first members of the choir, assumed the conductor’s baton of the Ondrasek Czech Youth Choir.  Thus began a whole new chapter in the life of the choir; with great successes at home and followed by many prizes at international choir competitions and festivals. Now the name Ondrášek can be heard on the most prominent stages around Europe.  Over recent years the choir’s activities have included wins in Arezzo (1995) and Llangollen (2000) festival, tours to Japan (1998) and South Africa (2000), concerts in the Urals (2004) and visits to almost all European countries.

Ondrášek choir comes from the town of Nový Jičín, and today is a part of the Elementary School of Fine Arts in Nový Jičín which provides the choir with proper conditions for its work.  There are three preparatory sections of the choir and two concert ensembles.  Organisation and administration (in areas such as membership, contact with parents, planning of concerts, tours and choir training camps, making and repairing of choir costumes, development and PR) is carried out by the Society of Friends of the Ondrášek Youth & Children’s Choir, presided by Mrs. Svatoslava Lenartová, who is also the president of the choir.Ondrášek and its leadership have been awarded many prestigious prizes and awards for their long-standing and systematic work in the fields of culture and education.