• ensemble of the Royal Infantry Regiment of Baron Wernhardt: participating ensemble
• members of the Womens' Music and Song Society, Stiaseck [Šťasek]: participating institution

The Prager Morgenpost 9/1/1859 advertisement noted that this was the ‘Final Music Festival and Production of the military music [ensemble] of the esteemed Infantry Regiment of Baron Wernhardt’. Their appearance was combined with that of the ‘Women’s Music- and Song-Society’ called Stiaseck [in Czech, ‘Šťasek’]. Admission was 12kr.

This event is especially noteworthy for the participation of the Prague women’s musical society Stiaseck. Participation of women’s musical groups in Prague public cultural life outside the sphere of large SATB choral productions was rare until the later years of the nineteenth century; the first all-female choir in the city was not formed until the 1860s. However, evidence of this particular production and the existence of ‘Stiasek’ illustrates definite organized social music cultural activity in the city centered exclusively upon women. Fascinatingly, the activities of such female groups are rarely if ever recorded by the Prague press during the middle nineteenth century, and this aspect of the social history of the period awaits more detailed investigation. This is reflected too in the existence of contemporary, dedicated musical institutes for women, such as the Musikbildungs-Institute für Mädchen in Marienplatz [Marianské náměstí] whose programme and syllabus was noted in an advertisement published by Bohemia 7/10/1859, but whose day-to-day activities and contribution, if any, to annual concert life remains something of a mystery. Among the subjects offered by this institute were music theory taught by the Conservatory Director J.F. Kittl, history and aesthetics, the harp, pianoforte, physharmonika [glass harmonica], zither and guitar.