Jan Kandráč

"The groom is not supposed to see the bride for at least two days before the ceremony. Then, when the day comes to go to the church, the groom goes with his whole family to the bride's family. The bride is with her family and the groom goes with his parents and his family to get the bride and there is no way the family will just give her away easily. They play a game, it´s like an argument. We're arguing. They show us other beautiful Roma girls. And they ask: 'Is this her?' We come, we say in Romani that we are going to get the bride. We explain that they fell in love with each other. And we play an argument. We want to see the bride and they deliberately bring us other girls. I have also seen when I went to play at a wedding that the bride and groom were in the same room. I was like, 'What is this?' That hurts me. And the argument and all that is beautiful. It lasts about an hour. Then the wine is opened, the parents have a toast and it goes on and it's beautiful."

"We rehearsed at my grandfather's house and the rehearsal went as follows. It was a kind of a family celebration, we were aware of being a family of musicians, good Romani people who keep the old Romani traditions. Of course there was good alcohol, good food, the whole family was sitting there, even the neighbours. There were maybe 30 people in the flat. We rehearsed, played games, and then my grandmother and mother started dancing. And my grandfather said to me: 'See that, Honza, how they are dancing? That means it's good [music], that they're so absorbed in the music that they feel they have to dance and have fun.' I learned a lot there. I still remember it to this day. It was beautiful."

"Such a sad thing happened. I'm sad about it because it affected me directly as a musician. I'm a musician, I make music for all good people. The Roma, but not only the Roma, started to read the misinformation on Facebook and social media, and I was already pushing for vaccination during the first wave of COVID, because I know that the vaccine is the only and best weapon. I promoted it on Facebook, I told people that it is good to get vaccinated because COVID has mutated and is already taking the lives of the young. Roma people in particular started attacking me, calling me names, humiliating me, even threatening to beat me up. My job took it too. Several events, parties, even funerals were cancelled and are still being cancelled. For example, I have a wedding arranged with the Roma, and some anti-vaxxer who believes the misinformation says, 'Hey, don't take that Kandráč. He pushed for vaccinations, he's not a good person. He wants to vaccinate us, and people are dying from vaccinations.' And people believe him and say they won't take me to play for them. I've really lost some business that way. I'm sorry because it's my job, which I love, and I don't do anything else but play. It's very mean and malicious of those Roma."

"1989, the Velvet Revolution, I remember it very well. I was happy that the Bolsheviks had fallen. I celebrated it properly, by going out with boys and tearing off signs saying 'With the Soviet Union forever'. It wasn't some teenage thing, but I did it mainly because at school I had been obliged to play ‘Katyusha’ on the accordion. I also had to read Red Bolshevik poems and I knew from my grandfather that the Red Bolsheviks were criminals. I felt embarrassed when I had to play and perform for them, but I had to. And so 1989 was also like a small victory for me, I took it personally. I was very happy. And I was also happy that finally not only old songs by Karel Gott or Helena Vondráčková would be played, but that Western stars and films would come to us. It was euphoria. And there was a lot of playing in restaurants and hotels. I used to play at the Beseda Hotel almost every day. It was amazing."