Iva Bittová to close out this spring's "Rebelling Ladies of Czech Music" concert series

Composer, singer and violinist Iva Bittová will close out the spring section of the eighth annual “Rebelling Ladies of Czech Music” concert series on 31 May in Prague’s Divadlo Hybernia, performing with the band Čikori. Bittová has recently been dedicating herself to her own musical projects on the alternative, jazz, and rock scenes with these musicians and has released two albums with them, “Bílé Inferno” (“White Inferno”) and “Čikori”. Lída Nečásková made the announcement to the Czech Press Agency on behalf of the concert series.

“We have started a new phase now. We brought back our trumpet-playing member Oskar Török and in an effort to present newer material we are gladly accepting offers to play not only in the Czech Republic, but also at festivals throughout Europe,” said the co-founder of Čikori, guitarist Vladimír Václavek.

The Čikori lineup for the Divadlo Hybernia concert will include Jaromír Honzák (double-bass), Miloš Dvořáček (drums and percussion), Bittová, Václavek and Török. The acoustic music group was founded in 1999. Listeners sometimes mistakenly believe that “čikori” is a Romanes-language word, but the band’s name is actually a Czech phonetic transcription of the English word “chicory”.

Bittová is a leading personality on the Czech alternative scene. The public first learned of her in her student days, when she played the role of Eržika in the film “Balada pro banditu” (“A Ballad for a Bandit”), but she has always preferred singing and violin to acting. She made an exception in 2006 when she performed the lead role in Alice Nellis’s film “Tajnosti” (released in English as “Little Girl Blue”).

This original singer performs in many musical genres, including alternative music (with the band Dunaj, collaborations with Pavel Fajt and performances with Vladimír Václavek), experimental jazz, rock, and classical music (in collaboration with the Škampovo Quartet). She has also been a guest performer in productions of Mozart’s “Don Giovanni”.

“Even today people keep trying to give a name to my musical language, which many find completely original. My compositions and music are inspired by everyday life. Quiet is important, as is a positive, undisturbed atmosphere which imprints itself on the music,” Bittová says.

The spring section of this eighth year of the “Rebelling Ladies of Czech Music” series kicked off on 16 February in the Large Hall of the City Library in Prague with a performance by cimbalom player and singer Zuzana Lapčíková, who has formed a duo with double-bass player Josef Fečo. Marta Töpferová presented her new album “The Other Shore” on 24 March, and the actress and singer Bára Hrzánová will perform with the group Condurango on 12 May. This year’s cycle also featured several exceptional singers such as Radůza, Dagmar Voňková, and Tonya Graves, as well as a collaboration between singer Lenka Dusilová, jazz composer and pianist Beata Hlavenková, and the Clarinet Factory Quartet.