Chorea Academica is the mixed chamber choir of Ústí nad Labem, and a representative singing group of the Pedagogical
Faculty of Jan Evangelista
Purkyně University. The ensemble was founded
at the end of 1989 by the university teachers, Dr. Josef Říha
and Dr. Jiří Holubec who immediately impressed upon this
well-selected choir a high standard of artistic perfection in the interpretation
of a range compositions of various stylistic periods.The group is comprised of students as well as of young graduates and teachers of the University’s Music Departments, thus constituting a mix of well-trained choral singers with long experiences. During the seven years of its existence, the Chorea Academica has achieved the great and considerable success of having recorded an MC/CD in conjunction with the Benda Chamber Orchestra, an MC of selected recordings made in the Czech Radio Studios in Ústí nad Labem, the Ryba Czech Christmas High Mass CD recorded together with the North Bohemian Philharmonic of Teplice and their latest CD of vocal compositions.
The choir´s girls section, in conjunction with the Children’s Chamber Choir of Ústí nad Labem, has won the ‘absolute superiority’ title in the 1993 choir competition in Malta, and with Chorea Academica, one year later, taking the first and second place in a similar competition in the same country. Among the group’s other achievements are the silver rating of Budapest and the bronze at the international festival in Pardubice. The choirmaster, Prof. Josef Říha also won the award for best choral conducting during the Harant Choral Singing Celebration in 1993. Foreign tours always mark the higher points of any choir’s career and Chorea Academica has already sung in Sweden, Germany, Hungary, Holland, Malta and the United States.
Dr. Jiří Holubec had been out of the country on a research fellowship since 1994 leaving Dr. Josef Říha as the Choir’s sole conductor. However, both conductors have since prepared new, extended repertoire which they presented with the ensemble on their autumn tour of the United States in 1996.
