Minutes of the meeting of the committee of the
Czech Handel Society, z.s. (hereinafter also referred to as the Society),

Based on the video recording, compiled by Jan Kučera (J.K., March 3–April 2, 2026)

Present or connected via Zoom:

Committee:
Jiří Janoušek – Chairman
Michal Typl – Secretary
Jan Kučera – Technical Director
Libor Hofman

Substitute Committee Member:
Jana Míková (connected via Zoom)

Absent:

Věra Alves – excused due to busy schedule due to departure to the Czech Republic.

The committee therefore met with a quorum.

Meeting agenda

• Setting the date of the next committee meeting
• Chairman's report on the trip to Karlsruhe
• Account access for the technical director
• Trip to Mšeno
• Chairman's participation in the founding of the Handel Society in Italy, Susanna in Litomyšl
• Establishment of data boxes for committee members
• Preparation status of the Vertical Voices concerts
• Promotion of the Society. Leaflet
• Miscellaneous
• Tasks

Next committee meeting

The next committee meeting will take place on Tuesday, April 14^th, 2026 at 6:30 p.m. in AK Janoušek, see above.

Chairman's report on trip to Karlsruhe

From February 19^th to 23^rd, the chairman of the Society visited the music festival in Karlsruhe. This was done in agreement with the chairman of the Karlsruhe Handel Society, prof. Peter Overbeck and his deputy, Mrs. Susanne Freytag. The chairman financed his own travel and stay.

On Saturday, February 21^th, the chairman attended the evening gala concert with male soprano Mayaan Licht.

After the opening premiere and then the concert on the weekend, the so-called Lange Tafel (long table) took place, a social event for the Handelian public and guests. The event was well attended by representatives of the Göttingen Handel Society and also by representatives from Halle – Prof. Wolfgang Hirschmann and the intendant, Mr. Florian Amort. Mrs. Irene Weber-Froboese, widow of Prof. Klaus Froboese (1947‒2019, former intendant of the Halle Opera), arrived from Switzerland.

In the framework of all the aforementioned events, the Chairman spoke to a number of personalities present, some repeatedly, and specific meetings also took place. The outputs are as follows:

• The chairman signaled the intention of the Czech Handel Society to join as a corporate member (and for himself as a natural person and as an individual member) all three German Handel societies, i.e. in addition to the existing membership in the Halle Society, also in the Karlsruhe and Göttingen Societies.
• He arranged his participation in it with the director of the Göttingen Festival. Due to his busy schedule, he will not be able to attend the opening of the festival, but he can arrive on Friday, May 22^nd, for the end of the festival, attend the closing night of the opera Deidamia on Sunday, May 24^th, and finally the ecumenical service on May 25^th (Whit Monday).
• He arranged the trip of the president of the Znojmo Music Festival to Göttingen. He had previously agreed with the president of the Znojmo Music Festival, Mr. Jiří Ludvík, that he would join the chairman of the ČHäS on his trip to Göttingen, with the aim of starting to negotiate some form of cooperation. (It would be ideal to bring one of the German productions to the Czech Republic, but that would cost several million and money is a problem these days.)
• Ms. Dinah Epperlein from Göttingen also contacted the president, and she once again offered the possibility of simple accommodation for the duration of the festival to Czech handelians.
• Professor Hirschmann responded positively to Dr. Turchichová's research on Handel's reception in the 19^th century and offered the possibility of publishing it in the Händel-Haus Mitteilungen.

Account access for the technical director

On Thursday, February 26^th, the president and the technical director visited ČSOB together to secure access to the bank account of the Society for the technical director. The reason why the technical director needs it is that he manages the membership database and that it is necessary to record membership contributions in the database.

The whole event was successful, the technical director was granted full access to the account, fully equivalent to the access that the chairman of the ČHäS has. At the moment, if necessary, it is possible to secure access to the account for any member of the committee and the technical director can do so.

The technical director has asked for everyone's patience in this regard, given the current workload, he will not be able to do this immediately and must first acquire basic skills.

Journey to Mšeno

Due to circumstances – due to the accession of a new archbishop to the Prague see, the chairman cannot travel to Mšeno on the planned date in April; due to the war in Iran, on the other hand, he cannot travel on the planned trip to Israel in March and will therefore be able to participate in the trip to Mšeno on the originally planned date – the committee decided to postpone the date back to March 28.

Furthermore, it was discussed who would travel by car and who could join whom. In the event that the event should be intended for a wider membership, how to ensure that there are enough cars for all interested parties.

Jan Kučera discussed the possibility of organizing the event using public transport with regard to the “uncared” members, to which he belongs. The railway connection, not very favorable in itself, is to a large extent limited by the introduction of replacement bus transport due to fact the track was burried by the soil in the Mšeno—Mladá Boleslav section. It is not clear from the timetable whether at least some trains will run without restrictions (the so-called “Kokořínský rychlík”, a direct train from Prague to Mšeno and back) or whether all trains are fully replaced by busses. In addition, a new temporary replacement timetable will be published on 15^th March, so nothing is clear at this time.

Furthermore, the supplementary program that would make a similar trip more attractive to a wider membership. The following suggestions were made:

• A joint lunch at a local restaurant – it was not entirely clear what would await us there, whether the quality and hygiene would be at an acceptable level.
• A visit to the Kokořín Castle – Kokořín is about 9 km from Mšeno, i.e. it would be necessary to drive there. In addition, castles and chateaux normally do not open until April 1^st, March 28^th is early.
• A trip to Mělník. A visit to the Mělník Castle with a tour (the chateau is open all year round), lunch at one of the numerous local restaurants.

A final decision has not been made. Jan Kučera promised to publish information about the connection (he did so, although not on the official website, as part of the preparation of the trip on March 12^th, with the membership base being informed about this page by email):

Pilgrimage to Pavel's Grave 2026. Preparatory material. (In Czech only.)

Inviting people by phone was discussed, Michal Typl promised to take care of this, and so did Jan Kučera. He was asked to create an invitation letter (webpage); he promised he would do so if he knew enough specific information and that he could also call people under the same condition, etc.

Beyond the minutes, added on April 2^nd 2026

Jan Kučera had health problems, and he also did not have enough specific information regarding the time, specific programme and number of seats in the cars, so in the end he did not create any formal invitation webpage and did not call anyone himself. SHAME ON HIM! The event ultimately took place in a narrow circle. A separate article with photos will be published about it.

However, there is good news for the future:

• The Zlatý lev (Golden Lion) restaurant in Mšeno has proven to be suitable.
• The Ministry of Transport have found money to remove the landslide and restore the track, the track will not be closed down.

It therefore seems quite probable that it will be possible to organize a similar event with a reasonable use of public transport, with lunch in Mšeno and a subsequent trip to Mělník in 2027.

Participation of the Chairman in the Founding of the Handel Society in Italy, Susanna in Litomyšl

The Italian Handel Society will be founded in Florence from 19^th to 22^th June. As Prof. Overbeck informed, it will be possible to participate, but it will be quite financially demanding, since it actually a large part of the fee consitutes the founding contribution for the society. Mrs. Irene Weber-Froese, already mentioned in the present minutes, vice-chairman of the music section of the international Lyceum Club in Florence (an international network of clubs for ladies, focused on supporting art, literature, science and social engagement), is actively involved in the preparations. [Beyond the minutes: The aforementioned Lyceum Club is reportedly involved in the organization in cooperation with the Scuola Musica di Fiesole foundation.] The chairman would like to attend and plans to attend in coordination with our German friends. In any case, he will be unable to attend the performance of Susanna in Litomyšl.

It turned out that other committee members would not be able to attend the performance of Susanna in Litomyšl either, because, as Libor Hofman pointed out, the date coincides with one of the upcoming concerts by Pastor Michael and Vertical Voices, see below. This also sparked a spontaneous discussion among committee members about whether such demanding preparation, which Collegium 1704 certainly underwent when studying Susanna, would be worth it for a single festival performance and that Collegium 1704 would definitely give another performance. [Beyond the minutes: Jan Kučera investigated the matter and as of March 24^th he is allowed to unofficially confirm that the performance of Susanna in the same cast as in Litomyšl will also be part of the autumn season of Collegium 1704 in November 2026 at the Rudolfinum.]

Assignement of Data Boxes for committee members

Since according to the valid extract from the federal register the entire committee, and therefore all its members, is a statutory body of the ČHäS, each committee member was assigned a Data Box, allowing them access to the Data Box of the Czech Handel Society. This ensures continuity compared to the previous period, when the chairman was the only one who had access to the Data Box of the Society and his sudden death de facto stopped the activities of the Society for more than half a year.

The chairman ordered all (even absent) members to check before the next committee meeting whether they had received the relevant notification by surface mail and to activate the mailbox. Furthermore, the chairman recommended that all committee members set up an email notification that there was a message in the Data Box and to check the contents of the Data Box. The chairman ordered Jan Kučera to verify that everyone actually did this and to supervise it, or to help them.

Status of preparation for the Vertical Voices concerts

At the last meeting, Libor Hofman took on this task in the role of the “main coordinator”.

(Jan Kučera created a sample letter explaining what it was about, who the performers were, that they had already been here in 2024, that the concerts were a success, and that we were looking for places where they could perform in the given period. In other words, a kind of universal letter that would not be formulated for a specific place. He made this letter available to all members of the Czech Handel Society, with the proviso that they could modify it as needed and could help in searching in their area, where they knew it well and where they had contacts. In reality, this letter turned out to be completely useless. Then Jan Kučera developed health problems and all his activity in this respect ended.)

The following information comes from Libor Hofman.

Everything is still in the correspondence, the following has been agreed with Pastor Michael. Vertical Voices will be here from June 20th to June 22nd, when they can have concerts; on June 23rd they will travel to Austria and then on June 27th they will return from Austria, they could have a concert somewhere in South Bohemia or South Moravia and they may also have a concert on June 28th. They want to have time off on June 29th, they are leaving on June 30th.

At the moment, the concerts are arranged as follows:

Unlike the situation two years ago, there are four planned concerts. The venues for all three concerts in northern Bohemia has been secured based on Libor Hofman's personal acquaintances with local priests or castellans. Although the possibility of finding one venue in southern Bohemia or southern Moravia (where Libor Hofman has no acquaintances) is still open, the current number of concerts is completely sufficient. The time of the concerts has not yet been determined, according to local established practice it will be around 5 or 6 p.m. There is also no promotion underway yet. As soon as the situation becomes clearer around June 22^nd, Libor will write to Pastor Michael so that they can arrange suitable accommodation.

The debate included several suggestions for places in South Moravia (Znojmo, Valtice, Náměšť nad Oslavou), but there was no concrete outcome.

Beyond the minutes, added on April 2^nd, 2026

After Mrs. Jana Míková read the minutes on April 2^nd, 2026 before they were published, she wrote this message to us: "After reading the minutes, I have to clarify the situation of the possible concert in Hořovice. Libor Hofman already knows. As the ensemble is returning from Austria not on Saturday a originally planned, but on Sunday, and because the transfer is planned for the afternoon, it might be impossible for the evening concert to take place. Moreover, the local priest, Mr. Zvolánek was hospitalized with a heart attack and I did not succeed in contacting him, yet. In short, I leave it to both Mr. Zvolánek and Pastor Michael to make arrangements, maybe for the next time…“

We wish Mr. Pastor Zvolánek a full recovery; the concert in  Hořovice will probably not take place.

Promotion of the Vertical Voices performance

Libor Hofman is planning to devote himself to promotion only at the beginning of May, when his removal to Turnov will be finished, when he will calmly negotiate with the organizers, find out how many posters will be needed and arrange for their printing if necessary (perhaps it would be enough if he provided them in digital form and the organizers would print the few necessary pieces themselves… "We will then do the promotion through all the channels we have at our disposal, especially by distributing the posters on the Internet. We will of course inform the local cultural and information centers so that they can put it in their newspapers and also spread the information through their channels…"

Subsequently, there was a debate about where to do it “in two years, again”, who has what contacts where, etc.

Chairman stated that he would not be able to attend the concerts in Northern Bohemia due to the founding of the Italian Handel Society, but that he intended to arrive in Hořovice on June 28^th, would like to meet Pastor Michael, and that they should try to suggest whether he would stop by Pavel's grave in Mšeno and, if the response is positive, arrange it somehow.

Libor Hofman added that he was trying to push for a benefit concert in Liberec or Jablonné for the orphaned son of a mutual friend who had recently died in an avalanche in the Alps. Since it was a local family, it could attract more visitors out of solidarity.

Promotion of the Czech Handel Society. Leaflet

The subsequent debate showed that the ČHäS should have a table or stand with a current promotional leaflet. A5 or DL ​​format, a piece of paper that would refer to the Web, contacts, some basic information, a picture of Handel and who to contact if interested in membership. At events, a member could stand by it and answer questions.

Jan Kučera invited Michal Typl to come up with a concept and offered to be happy to proofread it and Libor Hofman would certainly be happy to design it. Inspiration can be found in the ‘Aims of the Czech Handel Society’.

Miscellaneous

Jan Kučera asked for matters related to the preparation of the circular to be postponed until after he has had time to familiarize himself with the functioning of the banking account of the Society.

Michal Typl brought up the topic of a spring hike to Mount Říp. The debate showed that it simply would not work out in terms of dates. The only way would be to propose two or three dates, send them out to the membership, and ask interested parties to call back to see when they could and would like to participate. The webmaster then simply pulls out the archived invitation from the past, updates it as needed, and places it on the website.

Tasks

Unfulfilled tasks remain valid.

• Jan Kučera: get to know the functioning of the ČHäS banking account, work on member contribution statistics, start preparing the Membership Circular. It's a process, please don't expect everything to be completed by the next meeting.
• Jan Kučera: make sure that all committee members have their data mailbox up and running, or force them to do so (sarcasm is appropriate here).
• Michal Typl: prepare a draft of a flyer in A5 or DL ​​format that would itroduce the Sociey to general public. Later, adjust everything in cooperation with Jan Kučera and discuss further with Libor Hofman.
• Jiří Janoušek: Manage participation in the festival in Göttingen, help the president of the Znojmo festival in establishing contacts on site. Prepare for participation in the opening of the Italian Handel Society in Florence.