Our concert alongside South Korean composer and multi-instrumentalist Jung Jaeil on the main stage of Colours of Ostrava offered the audience an extraordinary musical experience. Under the baton of Stanislav Vavřínek, the performance featured pieces not only from global hits like Squid Game, Parasite, and Mickey 17, but also compositions from Jaeil’s solo album Listen. Once again, it became clear that classical music can hold its own even on a large open-air stage in the heart of a multi-genre festival.

Even before the concert, the collaboration sparked curiosity. How would Jung Jaeil’s minimalist style blend with the full sound of a symphony orchestra? The result exceeded all expectations. “The moment Jung Jaeil sat down at the black piano, the concert took off in exactly the way we love Colours of Ostrava for,” wrote Musicserver. Striking visual projections by the studio Fluks — known for its work with artists like Olivia Rodrigo — further amplified the emotional impact of the evening.

“The audience was transported into magical realms of music and imagery,” noted Patriot magazine in its review. And Jung Jaeil himself didn’t hide his enthusiasm for the collaboration: “I’m truly impressed by the quality of the Ostrava orchestra. I’ve had the chance to work with many world-class ensembles in the past. But here, I was genuinely surprised by the precision and dynamism the Janáček Philharmonic delivered.”

Jan Žemla, director of the Janáček Philharmonic Ostrava, summarized the concert by saying: “When I first heard Jung Jaeil’s music, it sparked tremendous curiosity in me. It was so specific that I found it hard to imagine how it would work with a symphony orchestra. But once the composer arrived and rehearsals began, everything clicked, and it worked incredibly well.”

This marked the fifth time in the orchestra’s history that it performed at Colours of Ostrava — and another natural step in a long-term programming vision that bridges classical music with other genres and remarkable artistic personalities. Both audiences and critics agreed: this was one of the highlights of the entire festival.

Sdílet na Facebooku