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The world famous mezzo-soprano Dagmar Pecková, in collaboration with Czech composer and conductor Jaroslav Krček and his ensemble Musica Bohemica, has released her debut Christmas album. Called Nativitas, Christmas Songs of Old Europe, it is made up of Czech and Moravian carols, Christmas songs from seventeenth-century Bohemian Baroque hymnbooks as well as old carols of other European nations.

Martin Chodúr, a Czech singer and the winner of the 2009 Czech Pop Idol, has released his first Christmas album called Hallelujah. It contains cover-versions of some of the best-known Christmas songs, such as Oh, Holy Night or I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day, as well as a couple of traditional Czech carols. Martin Chodúr is accompanied by the Janáček Philharmonic Orchestra headed by Marek Prášil.

The Prague funk group Monkey Business, known for their highly entertaining live shows, have just launched their ninth LP, Bad Time for Gentlemen. Fronted by singer and keyboardist Roman Holý and showman vocalist Matěj Ruppert, the band have been around for almost two decades and released their debut LP in 2000. The titles on their newest album – including Worst Lover Ever, Too Fat to Work and Sweet Years of Procrastination – show that Monkey Business still possess the sense of fun that won them fans around the country in the first place.

Karel Gott is unquestionably one of the most successful figures in the history of Czech show business. Over the course of his career, spanning over six decades, he collected more than 40 Golden Nightingales Awards as the country’s most popular singer and recorded over 100 albums. At the age of 79, Karel Gott is still going strong. He has successfully overcome cancer to return on stage and release a new album.

Folk and chanson singer Radůza, one of the brightest lights on the Czech music scene, has just released a new album titled Man with a White Dog.

Karel Hašler, was a famous Czech actor, director, film producer as well as film music composer. But most of all, he was the author of more than 300 songs, many of which are still sung today.

The Czech-born, US based rock musician Ivan Král, one of the best-known Czech musicians abroad, celebrated his 70th birthday this year. He is perhaps the only Czech to have left his mark on the history of rock music and his songs have been recorded by such artists as Iggy Pop, Patti Smith, or David Bowie.

Luboš Andršt is a Czech blues, jazz and art-rock guitarist. In a career spanning close to half a century he has produced over a dozen solo albums, collaborated with leading music ensembles and played with the likes of Paul Jones, Dan Gillespie Katie Webster and B.B. King.

Infinite Dance is the fifth and most fully realised LP yet from the Prague guitar-based group Please the Trees. The new record, which was part recorded in San Francisco, features no less a guest than US singer-songwriter John Grant on one song, while ex-Swans man Thor Harris plays marimba on a couple of tracks.

The Prague composer of Jewish descent, Hans Krása, wrote Brundibár using Adolf Hoffmeister’s libreto as early as 1938. Sadly however, the opera only became famous once it premiered in Terezín on September 23rd 1943. Krása himself studied the opera with small jewish children after being deported to Terezín. Here it was performed more than 50 times.