A composition for 300 instruments and one city will attempt to tune Trenčín and find a common tone.
On Friday, May 22, the centre of Trenčín will transform into a stage for 300 musical instruments. The collective ooo will present the city-wide sound score Tuning the City – a project created specifically for Trenčín on the occasion of the European Capital of Culture Trenčín 2026 title. It has been in preparation for almost two years and will involve more than one hundred professional and amateur musicians and two hundred children and young people from schools, art schools and leisure centres in the Trenčín Region, including non-musicians from local sports clubs and centres for excluded groups. The project asks whether it is possible to find harmony in a shared world despite today’s conflicts and draws attention to the sounds of the city – pleasant and unpleasant alike – that surround us every day.
The three-hour concert happening, created by Fero Király and Eva Vozárová with dramaturgy by Petra Fornayová, will begin on Friday, May 22 at 5:00 PM. It is divided into two parts: City Preludes scattered throughout the streets of the city (5:00 – 6:30 PM) and a second act for 300 sound sources, which all participating musicians will perform together on Hviezdoslavova Street in front of ODA (6:30 – 8:00 PM). The event is held under the patronage of the Mayor of Trenčín, Richard Rybníček.
The City Preludes will take place from 5:00 to 6:30 PM at various locations. At different times, they will resonate throughout the wider city centre – from the train station to St. Anne’s Square and from Farská Street to the athletics track near Zátoka pokoja. They will enrich the city with new sounds and respond to the existing ones. “Hear your city differently. Listen to the sounds that normally appear in the city, as well as those that we will ‘add’ especially for this occasion. Don’t expect a city full of music – these will not be traditional concerts. The city is a living phenomenon that sounds the way we behave within it,” invite creators Fero Király and Eva Vozárová. “Forget cars, trust your feet and bicycles, discover the city slowly,” they add.
Among the more than 50 preludes will be a rhythmic improvisation for a ping-pong club and two double basses in the underpass near the city park, fanfares celebrating public transport passengers, an interpretation of Milan Adamčiak’s ParkingSong across four parking lots near Rozmarínová Street, the Bratislava Improvisation Orchestra moving through the city and reacting to sound events, a composition by Peter Machajdík for three forklifts, a public rehearsal of the male vocal group ŠKRUPINKA, and Richard Imrich a.k.a. Nylon Union spreading a sonic storm from the balcony of the Creative Institute Trenčín. The preludes will last from a few minutes to an hour and a half, will repeat several times, and will take place in both more and less visible locations in the city centre and surrounding areas. On the day of the event, organisers will distribute a map of the preludes – though it will probably be impossible for anyone to experience all of them. They recommend letting yourself be guided by the city and the events happening within it.
From 6:30 to 8:00 PM, the event will concentrate in one place. At this time, all participating musicians will gather in the square in front of ODA, where two experiments will take place simultaneously: the first will be the premiere of Fero Király’s composition Tuning the City – an original work for 300 sound sources created specifically for this occasion. The second will be a literal act of tuning together: approximately one hundred professional musicians involved in the project will end the evening with the world-famous Composition #7 by American composer La Monte Young from 1960. In this piece, the orchestra plays only two notes – a perfect fifth – for several dozen minutes. “This extremely minimalist composition creates a dense sound field that temporarily absorbs and covers all other sounds,” explains Fero Király. “At one moment, we will attempt to find a shared sound that briefly connects the city. At the same time, we are asking whether and under what conditions art can become a path towards tuning together – not only musically. Bringing together different artists in public space means having the courage to experiment and search for what we have in common.”
In addition to one hundred experienced artists – including Daniel Matej, Peter Machajdík, Lenka Novosedlíková, Richard Hronský, Tibor Feledi, Slávo Krekovič, Richard Imrich, Daniel Kordík and Eva Priečková – the project also involves more than 150 children and young people from the Trenčín Region. Students from art schools in Nové Mesto nad Váhom, Považská Bystrica, Nová Dubnica, Dubnica nad Váhom and Veľké Bielice, members of the Kornička children’s folklore ensemble, clients of the DEMY Social Services Centre and the Association of Disabled People’s Organisations in Trenčín will present various urban sound games. Musicians of different ages have been preparing for the project over a long period. At the beginning of 2025, selected art schools, leisure clubs, ensembles and facilities for excluded groups joined Tuning the City. Together with lecturers from Združenie ooo, they subsequently carried out more than 100 workshops in which participants explored what music can be and how to perceive the sounds around them. The team of lecturers, who visited local groups and communities for more than a year, includes renowned musicians such as Eva Šušková, David Danel, Barbora Tomášková, Vojtěch Šembera, Michal Matejka and others. “Different instruments, different performers, different experiences, different ages, different places, different sounds, different opinions about music. Despite that – and precisely because of it – we hope the final tuning together will be not only beautiful, but also inspiring,” explains Petra Fornayová.
A complete list of participating groups, musicians and lecturers involved in the Tuning the City project, as well as more information, can be found at ladeniemesta.zdruzenie.ooo.
