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At a time when concert halls have fallen silent, and society is struggling to deal with the coronavirus crisis, music is becoming even more important and many singers and artists are going online to give the public new strength, faith and hope. In the second part of a series of interviews with Czech artists living in the United States, titled Artists That Never Give Up in the City That Never Sleeps, the Czech Centre in New York features Czech musicians in the Big Apple. Marek Milde spoke to musician Iva Bittová about what music means to her and

Born in the then East Germany, musician and producer Jan P. Muchow (48) moved to Prague with his family as a small child and in his teens was a promising football player. But sport’s loss was music’s gain when he founded The Ecstasy of Saint Theresa, perhaps the only Czech rock band to make any real impact in the West in the early to mid 1990s. Following several line-up changes, EOST coalesced for a long time around Muchow and actress Kateřina Winterová, though the project has now been dormant for several years. Today Jan P. Muchow is primarily

Ivan Joel Hajoš was born in Czechoslovakia in 1946 and has lived in Israel since 1969. He used to work as a mathematician and data analyst in a state research institution. Since his retirement he works as a free-lance translator from Czech and Slovak into Hebrew and vice-versa. In the third part of a series of interviews with Israelis with Czechoslovak roots conducted by the Czech Centre in Tel Aviv she talks to the centre’s head Robert Mikoláš about his work, his love of the Czechoslovak New Wave and his plans for the future.

Dalia Shimko is an Israeli film and theater actress as well as a theater director, and founder of Ensemble Aspamia. In the third part of a series of interviews with Israelis with Czechoslovak roots conducted by the Czech Centre in Tel Aviv she talks to the centre’s head Robert Mikoláš about her work, the coronavirus crisis and her plans for the future.

“I spend my time at home - practicing, teaching online and shopping for food for my family,” says Hagai Shaham, one of Israel’s most talented violinists. In the second part of a series of interviews with Israelis with Czechoslovak roots conducted by the Czech Centre in Tel Aviv he talks to the centre’s head Robert Mikoláš about his daily routine during the coronavirus crisis, his love of Czech composers and his plans for the future.

He was a phenomenal architect and intellectual. Jan Blažej Santini Aichel (usually known just as Santini) lived in the 17th and early18th century. Born to an Italian father and Czech mother in Prague, he left a legacy of great churches and non-sacral buildings around the Czech Republic. Vit Pohanka visited the Pilgrimage Church of Saint John of Nepomuk on Zelená Hora.

Petra Valentová is a Czech-born, New York-based conceptual and multimedia artist whose work frequently explores questions of identity. With her adopted city greatly impacted by the coronavirus crisis, she discusses her latest projects and more in this interview from the Czech Center New York series Artists That Never Give Up in the City That Never Sleeps.

Tom Kotik is an artist and curator whose work often explores the intersection of sound and vision, as well as a musician with the band Sportsman’s Paradise. As New York comes under terrible pressure from the coronavirus pandemic, the Prague-born, Brooklyn-based Kotik discusses his latest projects and more in this interview from the Czech Center New York series Artists That Never Give Up in the City That Never Sleeps.

Painter Hana Shannon, whose works include the series Czechs Silhouettes, received classical training in Prague before settling in New York. With the Big Apple currently severely affected by the coronavirus crisis, she discusses her latest projects – and being personally affected by Covid-19 – in this interview from the Czech Center New York series Artists That Never Give Up in the City That Never Sleeps.

The highly successful Czech-born illustrator and author Petr Sís has been resident in New York for several decades. As the city comes under intense pressure from the coronavirus pandemic, he discusses his latest projects and more in this interview from the Czech Center New York series Artists That Never Give Up in the City That Never Sleeps.