A performative situation for 300 instruments and one city
Date: May 22, 5:00 PM – 8:30 PM
Location: the entire city of Trenčín and Hviezdoslavová street
A composition for 300 instruments and one city will attempt to tune Trenčín and find a common tone.
Tuning the City is being created as a brand-new work specially commissioned for Trenčín 2026.
The project has been in preparation for nearly two years and will involve more than one hundred professional and amateur musicians, as well as two hundred children and young people from schools, art schools, and leisure centres across the Trenčín region — including non-musicians from local sports clubs and centres supporting excluded communities. The project asks whether it is possible to find harmony in a shared world despite today’s conflicts, while drawing attention to the sounds of the city — pleasant and unpleasant alike — that surround us every day.
This three-hour concert happening, created by artists Fero Király and Eva Vozárová with dramaturgy by Petra Fornayová, begins on Friday, May 22 at 5:00 PM. It is divided into two parts: City Preludes scattered throughout the streets of Trenčín (5:00 PM – 6:30 PM), followed by a second act for 300 sound sources performed together by all participating musicians on Hviezdoslavova Street in front of ODA (6:30 PM – 8:00 PM).
Selected City Preludes taking place between 5:00 PM – 6:30 PM include:
• ParkingSong by Milan Adamčiak — a brass ensemble interprets the licence plates of parked cars according to a graphic score across four parking lots near Rozmarínová Street
• The Bratislava Improvisation Orchestra moving through the city and responding to sound events scattered around town
• A composition for three forklifts by composer Peter Machajdík in an unexpected location in the historic centre
• A rehearsal by the male vocal group Škrupinka in a rental space on the ground floor of OD PRIOR
• Richard Imrich (Nylon Union) performing electric guitar from the balcony of the Creative Institute Trenčín
• DFS Kornička under the direction of ethnomusicologist Jana Ambrózová performing in the underpass beneath Hasičská Street
• An advertising column at the bus station temporarily transformed into a musical score
• Clients of DEMY Trenčín and AZZP Trenčín bringing the park and amphitheatre behind the Town Hall to life
• The KOMPOST ensemble, founded at the Academy of Arts in Banská Bystrica under composer Daniel Matej, performing around the fountain on Hviezdoslavova Street, and many more.
You can find the full list of participating groups, musicians, and mentors involved in Tuning the City, along with more information, at ladeniemesta.zdruzenie.ooo.
