S.E.M. Ensemble

Petr Kotik on discovering Gertrude Stein’s text, Many Many Women, and deciding to set it to music.

Hear a 90-minute version of this 6-hour piece this Wednesday, April 22, 7pm at Bohemian National Hall. Free admission, RSVP through the SEM or Czech Center websites.

Have you had enough of the kitsch
Coming to us from Washington?
Are you tired of the unending effort to entertain?

You will not find any of it
At SEM concerts

Our music
May confuse or contradict itself

But
Not a single moment throughout history
Was it otherwise in the case of music
That prevailed (eventually)

-Petr Kotik, April 2026

Wednesday, April 22, 7pm
Bohemian National Hall

Reserve your (free) ticket on either the Czech Center or SEM websites.

Video: Footage from SEM’s 1982 Europe tour, sponsored by the Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon, Porto, and on the Island of Madeira.

Music: Many Many Women by Petr Kotik

Petr Kotik’s “Many Many Women” on the text by Gertrude Stein and “String Quartet No. 1, Erinnerungen a Jan” will be performed by S.E.M. Ensemble and Glass Clouds Ensemble () as part of the Czech Center’s Offbeat Bohemia series.

On duration, Gertrude Stein wrote, “A masterpiece does not really have a beginning or an ending. It just starts and ends.” While MMW in its entirety can last for 6 hours, this performance of the piece will be about 90 minutes long.

Wednesday, April 22 at 7:00pm
Bohemian National Hall
321 East 73rd Street
New York, NY

Free admission

For more information and to RSVP, please visit czechcenter.com or semensemble.org

Video: PK riding his bicycle in the rain in Brooklyn.
Sound: Many Many Women, excerpt