Májovák Karviná is a symphonic wind orchestra whose roots date back to 1908. Its mission is to represent the city of Karviná and educate young musicians to play in an orchestra. In recent years, the ensemble has focused primarily on the works of contemporary world-class symphonic wind music composers, such as Johan de Meij, Otto M. Schwarz, Jacob de Haan, James Barnes, but also on the works of Pavel Staňek, Evžen Zámečník and many others. An integral part of the repertoire are also transcriptions of symphonic music by famous world-class authors. The orchestra closely cooperates with teachers and students of the Janáček Conservatory of Ostrava, the Faculty of Arts of the University of Ostrava, and members of the Janáček Philharmonic Orchestra of Ostrava and the National Moravian-Silesian Theatre. Májovák regularly and successfully participates in the most important events in the Czech Republic (mainly the International Competition of Large Wind Orchestras in Ostrava), major festivals abroad (MID Europe Schladming), and collaborates with a number of excellent orchestras abroad (Germany, Slovenia, Italy, etc.). It also often presents itself at important events that go beyond the genre of wind music, such as Janáček’s Hukvaldy, St. Wenceslas Festival, Colours of Ostrava, Pohoda Festival in Trenčín, etc.
The orchestra has won a number of international successes, most recently in 2017 a gold medal at the World Music Contest in Kerkade (Netherlands), absolute victory at the Geneve Music Band Contest in Geneva (2021) and 1st place at the New York Victory Interntational Music Competition (2023). The orchestra also successfully records for Czech Radio Ostrava and cooperation with the Opole Philharmonic (PL) is also developing. Filip Urban has been the chief conductor of the orchestra since 2023.
