About us
History
Today’s Novoměstská filharmonie follows a long tradition of the chamber orchestra which was founded in 1960 by the conductor Dušan Vrchoslav at Bedřich Smetana’s Music School in Nové Město nad Metují. Under his leadership, the orchestra won the 3 rd Prize at the National Competition of Czech Music Schools in Brno. The orchestra performed in concerts in the Czech Republic, Poland, Germany and Austria.
In 1998, Jaroslav Rybáček became the new conductor of the orchestra. He transformed the chamber ensemble into a symphony orchestra with over fifty players. The orchestra was named “Novoměstský orchestr” in 2001 and received a number of prizes and awards. The most notable were the 1 st Prize “cum laude” at the 53 rd European Music Festival for Youngsters in Neerpelt, Belgium (2005) and the 1 st Prize in the category of symphony orchestras and the Prize of the City of Vienna for the most outstanding performance obtained at the 36 th International Festival Youth & Music in Vienna (2007).
In 2006, the orchestra recorded its first CD titled “Tance” (Dances) with compositions by P. I. Tchaikovsky, A. Dvořák, J. Brahms and others. Novoměstský orchestr cooperated with the directors of the film “The Power of Good: Nicholas Winton”. In 2007 the orchestra participated in the ceremony of Sir Nicholas Winton’s nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize. The following year it recorded the theme music for the film “Nicky’s Family”. In 2011 the orchestra performed at the film’s world premiere at the Prague Congress Centre.
In 2011 Novoměstský orchestr was renamed to “Novoměstská filharmonie” (Nove Mesto Philharmonic, NoFi) and in the same year it won the 1 st Prize in the category of symphony orchestras at the International Youth Music Festival in Bratislava. Apart from competitions, the orchestra has successfully participated in music festivals in Italy and Spain and has made a concert tours in Latvia and Croatia. The orchestra recorded CD named „Filmové melodie“ (Movie Melodies) with compositions of E. Morricone, K. Badelt, J. Williams in 2014.
The preparatory ensemble of Nove Mesto Philharmonic called “Nofi Junior” won 1 st prize in National Competition of Czech Music Schools and Special Prize of Czech Philharmonic in 2015. The following year Nove Mesto Philharmonic won the 1 st Prize in category of symphony orchestras at the festival „Musica Festa Florence 2016“ and became the absolute winner of this music competition. In 2017 ensemble participated in Music festival in Budapest.
The orchestra under the leadership of conductor Jaroslav Rybáček regularly performs at festivals and events in Czech Republic and is example of non-professional ensemble where the most important motivation is just Music.
