EXCHANGE PROGRAM

The University of North Texas and the Janácek Akademie of Music & the Performing Arts - the premiere performance school in Central Europe and home of the Brno International Music festival - have signed an official agreement that permits the exchange of up to two students per academic year. This exchange may be made either for one semester or for one academic year (excluding summer term).

Our arrangement calls for the UNT student to pay tuition and fees at UNT, and then simply attend the Janácek Akademie without additional cost; upon your return, the Director of Central European Studies & Exchanges will complete paperwork so that you may be awarded academic credit toward your degree requirements. Similarly, our agreement calls for the UNT student to pay UNT room and board fees for the exchange partner, while your own room and board is provided in Brno without cost. Although your instruction at the Janácek Akademie will be provided in English, preparatory Czech-language study is provided by Dr. Sovík without cost.

Questions relating to this exchange program should be addressed to tsovik@music.unt.edu.

CULTRAL & PERFORMANCE TOURS
Despite having been traded off by the Allies to Nazi Germany in 1938 and again to communist Russia in 1945, the Czech Republic has emerged from its former communist state to become one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world. Largely unscathed by the bombings of WWII, the Czech Republic can boast of having the densest concentration of Medieval and Renaissance castles on the European continent. It is a Cinderella-land of rivers and lakes and mountain forests just smaller than the state of New York, divided into "Bohemia" on the left (with Prague as capital) and "Moravia" on the right (with Brno as capital). Slovakia, further east of Moravia, is no longer part of "Czechoslovakia" (which no longer exists as a country).

Whether you're visiting the "Golden City" of Prague or strolling through Medieval villages that won't seem to have changed during the past 1000 years, or whether your interests lean toward Gothic fortresses and cathedrals, or art museums, or the theaters and concert halls of Dvorak, Smetana, and Mozart (who actually lived in both Prague and Brno), or the Nazi extermination camp at TerezRn - you will not be disappointed by a visit to the Czech Republic.

Brno, which serves as our home base, has a population of 400,000 and is the second-largest city in the Czech Republic. As the official sister city of Dallas, Brno provides us with opportunities for giving recitals and - thanks to Dr. Sovík's Czech friends and Czech relatives - "real Czech" cultural and leisure activities not available to the "American tourist."

Relaxing at the outdoor tables in front of the still-functioning 12th-century tavern at the foot of Prague's astronomical clock, playing your first classical or jazz gig in Europe, attending Sunday services in a massive stone cathedral that was in use before Columbus had discovered America, feasting on Czech sausages, cheeses, and wines while dancing to a gypsy orchestra in a 400-year-old wine cellar, standing in Brno's Market Square at midnight to make your wish at the "center of the world" - these are the memories that you will carry for the rest of your life.

"Vin Diesel's" Vranov Castle

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