Pro Bohemia 2025 - Terms and Conditions
Pro Bohemia Ostrava 2025– 23rd International Competition for woodwind instruments, piano, string instruments and vocal.
Terms and Conditions:
The competition will be held from 3rd – 6th April 2025 at Janáček Conservatory in Ostrava.
It will be hosted and administered by the state-funded Janáček Conservatory in Ostrava.
The competition will be held in the following disciplines: woodwind instruments, piano, string instruments, organ and voice.
The competition is designed as one-round in each of the disciplines and categories.
The age of a participant enrolled in a given category cannot, on the first day of the competition, exceed the upper age limit of the category.
Competitors who belong to a lower age category may also participate in a higher age category.
Competitors who belong to a higher age category may not participate in a lower age category.
Competitors are allowed to apply for only one category of particular instrument.
How to Apply
Application form
The electronic application form will be available since 1st November 2024 (at 8 a.m.) online. Completed electronical application forms should be submitted by 31 January 2025 (at 12 a.m.) at the latest. All fields of the application form must be completed.
The receipt of each application will be acknowledged e-mail: probohemia@jsme.jko.cz. (If you do not receive the confirmation within three days, please contact us and check whether your application was delivered).
Attention – the first information delivered from info@jko.cz is not the confirmation that your application was accepted but it is only the announcement that a new application was created.
The organizers reserve the right to reject applications if the competition is oversubscribed.
Compulsory attachments
Birth certificate or any other official document showing the participant’s date of birth (insurance card, student card, student certificate, identity card, copy of birth certificate, passport etc.). These documents can be sent as an attachment to the application online or via email probohemia@jsme.jko.cz.
Copy of the receipt confirming payment of the competition fee.
These documents can be sent as an attachment to the application online or via email probohemia@jsme.jko.cz
All demanded information is treated according to General Data Protection Regulation.
Demanded attachments have to be received up to 31st January 2025.
No attachments will be returned.
If any formal deficiency in the application form and/or the attachments occurs, the application will be rejected by the organizers.
Competition Fee
0 category: CZK 800,-
1st category: CZK 800,-
2nd category: CZK 1000,-
3rd category: CZK 1200,-
4th category: CZK 1200,-
Participants from the Czech Republic are requested to pay the competition fee by bank transfer:
Československá obchodní banka, a.s.
Name of the account: Janáčkova konzervatoř v Ostravě, příspěvková organizace
Account number: 373548933/0300
Variable symbol: 425 and the date of birth in demanded form (ddmmyy– just 6 numbers)
(e.g. – date of birth 1st June 2009 = variable symbol 425010609)
Competition fee must be paid until enrolment deadline, i.e. 31st January 2025.
Please, state the name of a competitor in the message for the payee.
Competition fees cannot be refunded.
Competition Fee - Participants outside the Czech Republic
0 category: 35 EUR
1st category: 35 EUR
2nd category: 43 EUR
3rd category: 52 EUR
4th category: 52 EUR
Participants outside the Czech Republic are requested to pay the competition fee by bank transfer:
Name of the account: Janáčkova konzervatoř
IBAN: CZ14 0300 0000 0003 0227 1527
BIC/SWIFT
CEKOCZPP
Currency: EUR
Variable symbol: 425 and the date of birth in demanded form (ddmmyy– just 6 numbers)
(e.g. – date of birth 1st June 2009 = variable symbol 425010609)
Competition fee must be paid until enrolment deadline, i.e. 31st January 2025.
Please, state the name of a competitor in the message for the payee.
Competition fees cannot be refunded.
All travel and accommodation expenses are the responsibility of the participants themselves.
Categories, Time Limits, Repertoire:
Woodwind instruments:
The competition comprises the following disciplines: flute, bassoon, oboe, clarinet, saxophone.
Each instrument will be evaluated separately i.e. competitors playing the same instrument.
Categories / Time Limits:
1st category: 12 years max. 3 – 5 min.
2nd category: 15 years max. 6 – 9 min.
3rd category: 18 years max. 10 – 12 min.
4th category: 21 years max. 13 – 15 min.
The repertoire must include one composition by a Czech composer taking up at least one third of the total performance duration. This composition has to be played at the beginning of each performance.
The repertoire for the remaining time is optional.
In 1st category only one composition by a Czech composer is compulsory within the time limit.
Transcription is acceptable. It is not obligatory to perform music from memory.
The time limit has to be kept in all categories. The total time limit includes duration of all presented pieces.
The organizer does not provide piano accompaniment. The contestant will perform together with his own pianist who is responsible for all his travel and stay expenses.
Piano:
Category / Time Limit:
1st category: 11 years max. 7 – 9 min.
2nd category: 14 years max. 10 – 12 min.
3rd category: 17 years max. 14 – 16 min.
4th category: 21 years max. 17 – 20 min.
Repertoire:
1st category: at least one piece from the period of Czech Classicism
at least one piece by a Czech composer from different period
2nd category: at least one piece from the period of Czech Classicism
at least one piece by a Czech composer from different period
3rd category: compulsory composition: 1 etude by Bohuslav Martinů from the Etudes and Polkas cycle
at least one significant composition from the period of Czech Classicism
at least one piece by a Czech composer from different period
4th category: compulsory composition: Antonín Rejcha: Fugue C major no.15
(Theme G.F.H.) Allegretto grazioso
at least one composition from the period of Czech Romanticism
at least one piece by a Czech composer from different period
Playing from memory is obligatory. Compulsory piece in the 3rd category has to be performed first and must be included in the application form. The time limit has to be kept in all categories. The total time limit includes duration of all presented pieces.
Optional composition can be played after the compulsory pieces in the remaining time.
String instruments:
The competition comprises the following instruments: violin, viola, violoncello and double bass. Each instrument will be evaluated separately i.e. competitors playing the same instrument.
Violin:
Category / time limit:
1st category: 10 years max. 5 – 10 min.
2nd category: 13 years max. 11 – 12 min.
3rd category: 16 years max. 13 – 15 min.
4th category 20 years max. 16 - 20 min.
Compulsory compositions:
1st category: Bohuslav Martinů – Intermezzo no. 1 and 2
2nd category: Antonín Dvořák: Romantic Pieces for Violin and Piano Op. 75 – no. 1 and 2
(repeat just first repetition)
3rd category: Josef Suk: Four Pieces for Violin and Piano Op. 17 – Burleska
4th category: Antonín Dvořák: Mazurek Op. 49 for Violin and Piano
The compulsory piece is played at the beginning and has to be written in the application.
The repertoire must include the compulsory compositions listed above plus optional compositions up to the time limit.
Transcriptions of the pieces are not allowed.
Playing from memory is obligatory.
The time limit has to be kept in all categories. The total time limit includes duration of all presented pieces.
The organizer does not provide piano accompaniment. The contestant will perform together with his own pianist who is responsible for all his travel and stay expenses.
Violoncello:
Category / Time Limit:
1st category: 10 years max. 5 – 10 min.
2nd category: 13 years max. 11 – 12 min.
3rd category: 16 years max. 13 – 15 min.
4th category 20 years max. 16 – 20 min.
The repertoire must include one composition by a Czech composer which takes up at least one third of the total performance duration. This composition will be performed at the beginning of each performance and has to be written in the application. Optional composition can be played up to the time limit.
Transcriptions of the pieces are not allowed.
Playing from memory is obligatory.
The time limit has to be kept in all categories. The total time limit includes duration of all presented pieces.
The organizer does not provide piano accompaniment. The contestant will perform together with his own pianist who is responsible for all his travel and stay expenses.
Viola, double bass:
Category / Time Limit:
3rd category: 17 years max. 10 – 15 min.
4th category 21 years max. 16 – 20 min.
The repertoire must include one composition by a Czech composer which takes up at least one third of the total performance duration (this composition has to be played at the beginning, the name of this piece has to be written down in the application form.) The repertoire for the remaining time is optional.
Transcriptions of the pieces are allowed.
Playing from memory is obligatory.
The time limit has to be kept in all categories. The total time limit includes duration of all presented pieces.
The organizer does not provide piano accompaniment. The contestant will perform together with his own pianist who is responsible for all his travel and stay expenses.
Vocal:
Categories / Time Limits:
0 category: 8 years max. 3 - 4 min.
1st category: 11 years max. 5 – 6 min.
2nd category: 14 years max. 7 – 8 min.
3rd category: 17 years max. 9 – 10 min.
4th category: 20 years max. 11 – 12 min.
Repertoire:
0 category any songs of different character
1st category any songs of different character – including one by a Czech composer and at least 2 pieces with constant accompaniment,
2nd category two folk songs including one arranged by Leoš Janáček from the collection
´Moravská lidová poesie v písních´, at least two artificial songs
3rd category one folk song by Bohuslav Martinů from the collection ´Nové slovenské písně´
one artificial song,
one Baroque vocal composition
one artificial song by a Czech composer from the Classical period
4th category one Baroque vocal composition, one vocal piece by a Czech composer from Classical period, one vocal composition from the period of Romanticism,
one piece from the 20th century from the competitor´s country
The pieces must be sung in their original form (i.e. unarranged) and in their original keys.
Optional composition/s can be played after the compulsory pieces in the remaining time.
These pieces must be played after the obligatory choice of repertoire shown in specified category.
Singing from memory is obligatory.
The time limit has to be kept in all categories. The total time limit includes duration of all presented pieces.
The organizer does not provide piano accompaniment. The contestant will perform together with his own pianist who is responsible for all his travel and stay expenses.
Competition Regulations:
Participants in all disciplines and categories will participate in alphabetical order according to their last names.
The organizer or the head of the jury may change the order of the contestants due to organizational or other reasons.
Each participant is obliged to come in stated time to a certain concert hall before the competition.
If the participant does not arrive in the corresponding time, he/she will be disqualified from the competition. The chairman of the jury has got the right to allow the participant to continue in the competition on jury proposal for serious reasons.
The competitors have to keep the minimal duration limit. If the competitor does not keep the minimal duration limit, he/she will be disqualified. The total duration includes just the time of competition repertoire.
If the maximal duration limit is exceeded, the jury might ask to stop the performance with no influence on evaluation.
Chairpersons, judges and secretaries are appointed by the competition organisers.
Each discipline will be assessed by a professional jury consisting of a chairperson and four judges. If there are many contestants in the category of woodwind instruments, there will be two juries (1st jury – flute, bassoon, oboe, 2nd jury – clarinet, saxophone).
Secretaries cannot award points; their work is of a purely administrative character.
The juries will work simultaneously.
Final overall placing will be determined by the number of points a competitor receives.
The scale of points ranges from 1 – 25; judges cannot award points to their own students or to a competitor who is in close relation to the member of a jury or if the judge does not listen to the whole performance. There has to be at least 4 members of the jury to decide.
The total score is divided by the number of judges; the average number of points is calculated to two decimal places.
The juries will award the first, second and third place in each discipline and, in some cases, honorary awards.
Participants awarded the first place also receive the title of laureate.
If the competitors achieve identical or near-identical scores, a jury may decide to award
a prize or honourable mention to more than one competitor.
If the required score is not reached, or if a performance is deemed not to be of the required standard, juries reserve the right not to award a prize and/or to abstain from declaring an absolute winner.
All successful participants will receive a diploma.
The chairperson of the jury in each discipline will announce the absolute winner in each particular discipline. This winner will also be awarded financially. (In woodwind category, each jury selects one absolute winner.)
The jury is going to choose from the awarded competitors those of them who will perform at the concert at the International Music Festival of Leoš Janáček. The exact term will be announced at the beginning of the competition.
Special prices can be awarded in particular branches in the competition. Those are going to be published in the catalogue.
Disagreements will be resolved by the organizer’s representative.
If the jury agrees that the competitor did not keep the competition conditions or restrictions, he/she might be disqualified from the competition.
These regulations are mandatory for all juries.
All performances in all disciplines will be public.
Performing in public from a copy of a musical score is a contravention of copyright legislation. Participants will thus be fully responsible for any potential legal sanctions.
Agreement:
Application and participation in the competition gives the organiser the right to treat the personal data in connection with his/her participation as well as the right to make audio-visual records and take photographs during competition performance or concert and use it to further presentation or promotion.
This agreement will be provided either by the participant or his/her legal representative.
Copyright cannot be applied in connection with this use.
It is forbidden to make any other audio-visual records.
The competition conditions and regulations are published in Czech, English and Polish. In the event of a dispute, the Czech version will be regarded as binding.
Posting the application form is regarded to be agreement with personal data treatment concerning the participation as well as the agreement with any conditions and regulations of the competition.
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