2001

society

In 2001, our members resided in fifteen countries: Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Great Britain, Holland, Israel, Italy, Luxembourg, Japan, Mexico, South Africa, and the United States. For the first time we also exchanged membership privilleges with two music organizations: FRAU UND MUSIK and The Dvorak Society for Czech and Slovak Music.

With about 500 members, FRAU UND MUSIC is the biggest German 'Women in Music' organization with one of the largest archival collections of women in music materials in Europe. The group publishes a quarterly journal VivaVoce, the only German journal in the field of historical research on women in music.

The Dvorak Society for Czech and Slovak Music is one of the largest and most active music societies in Great Britain. The Society promotes interest in Czech and Slovak composers and publishes a newsletter and bi-annual journal Czech Music. Similarly to our society, its members come from all walks of life and include both non-musicians and professional musicians and musicologists; in short - deep knowledge of music is not required, the passion for it is! Since our three societies seem to have enough in common, we hope to develop joint projects in the future.

2001 was yet another remarkable year for the revival of Kapralova's music and, most importantly, the beginning of our partnership with the renowned publishing house Baerenreiter. In the next few years we will be collaborating on a small Kapralova edition, first publishing her last and one of her best chamber compositions - Ritournelle pour violoncelle et piano, op. 25.

Other important events of the year included two documentaries on the composer's life and work, broadcast in May. Both featured some of the best music by Kapralova, recorded exclusively for the projects. First of the documentaries, a 54-minute Czech Television film Last Concertino by Marie Kucerova's team (Studio Brno), made an important contribution to Kapralova research by premiering the composer's Concertino for Violin, Clarinet and Orchestra, op. 21. This remarkable work was reconstructed for the occasion by Brno professors Milos Stedron and Leos Faltus. The second, a 50-minute radio documentary for Canada's national radio network featured Kapralova's North American premiere of Variations sur le Carillon, op. 16, performed by renowned Canadian pianist Antonin Kubalek. The documentary was written and produced for Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) by Denise Ball, in collaboration with the society's members Karla Hartl and Antonin Kubalek. Kapralova's music was also broadcast by Radio Vltava (Czech Republic) and public radio networks in Chicago, Eastern New York, Western New England, and Southeastern United States. Finally, Kapralova's Grotesque Passacaglia was released on compact disc, thanks to Tomas Visek, a brilliant pianist from Prague and member of our society. His critically acclaimed CD Srdce na Vysocine presents also works by Kapralova's contemporaries Bohuslav Martinu, Vitezslav Novak, Vaclav Kapral, Jaroslav Kricka, Otakar Sin, and Jaroslav Jezek.

Kapralova was also a topic at two international conferences last year: the International Conference on Music Suppressed by the Third Reich, organized by the University of Virginia in March; and the Second Biennial International Conference on Twentieth-Century Music, organized by the Goldsmiths College at the University of London, in June. The former programmed Kapralova's April Preludes in the event's gala concert (performed by Kuang-Hao Huang); the latter included a lecture on Kapralova's life and work (by Matthias Wurz).

Kapralova's art songs were listed among the key Czech vocal repertoire in a groundbreaking guide Singing in Czech: A Guide to Czech Lyric Diction and Vocal Repertoire, by Dr. Timothy Cheek of University of Michigan, published by Scarecrow Press in May.

Articles promoting Kapralova's life and music appeared last year in Il Manifesto (Claudio Canal), New Homeland (Bedrich Prochazka), and Lidove noviny (Barbora Osvaldova). Articles about the reconstruction and recording of Kapralova's Concertino, op. 21, appeared in MF Dnes (Eva Zajickova, Lubos Marecek, and Halka Friedmannova) and in the journal of the Czech Music Information Centre - Czech Music (Erika Fronkova). Reviews of the composer's music were published in: New York Times (Allan Kozinn), IFSM Newsletter 2001/1 (Michael Haas and Erik Levi), and Nuova e Nostra (Marco del Vaglio).

Finally, the year 2001 was important also for a number of public performances of Kapralova's music world-wide. The key event was the performance of Military Sinfonietta by Ronald Corp and New London Orchestra in London at the end of the year. The performance marked the 63-year anniversary of the work's premiere by the BBC Orchestra at the 1938 ISCM Festival in London. Other important events included the New York premiere of Kapralova's String Quartet by the Hawthorne String Quartet from Boston and its Luxembourg premiere by the Kapralova Quartet from Prague. The string quartet was performed most often last year, followed by Kapralova's violin and piano pieces and her art songs.

We would like to thank the following artists and ensembles who promoted the composer's music in Canada, Czech Republic, France, Great Britain, and the United States last year (in chronological order): Ivona Konecna, Giovanna Jezkova, Jennifer Goltz, Eric Melear, Tomas Hanus and Czech Chamber Soloists, Pavel Busek, Pavel Walinger, Alice Rajnohova, Igor Ardasev, The Hawthorne String Quartet, Frank Chiou, Brno Philharmonic, Kuang-Hao Huang, Iva Fleischhansova, Jacqueline Metcalf, Antonin Kubalek, Kapralova Quartet, Sabina Vajdova, Jana Stefackova, Irena Houkalova, Tomas Visek, Jennifer Raggett, Ronald Corp and New London Orchestra.

Last year we designed a website promoting the Kapralova Quartet - an all women ensemble founded in 1995 in Prague under the name of Venus Quartet Prague. In 2001 the group changed its name to pay a tribute to Kapralova. The lead personality of the Kapralova Quartet is Rita Cepurcenko, a graduate of the Leningrad Conservatory and Academy of Music. The ensemble studied quartet performance with Prof. Bretislav Novotny, first violinist of the excellent Quartet of the City of Prague. The unique combination of the celebrated Russian school of string playing and the traditional Czech approach to quartet performance has distinguished the ensemble from other quartets; and, today, the ensemble ranks as one of the foremost Czech quartets.

Our online resources on women in music now also include an extensive bibliography (by Dr. Eugene Gates), several databases of women composers compiled by Karla Hartl, information about the life and work of Czech opera singer Emmy Destinn [1878-1930], a page dedicated to Czech composer Slava Vorlova [1894-1973], and a catalogue of women composers' materials housed by the Czech Music Information Centre in Prague, compiled by our member Marie Harvat. Our website www.kapralova.org continues to attract visitors, among them many musicians and musicologists, and receive recognition for excellence from important institutions, most recently from the BBC Online that listed the site among their recommended classical music links.

Finally, we would like to thank the following members of the Kapralova Society who helped us carry out our mandate in 2001 (in alphabetical order): Timothy Cheek, Ronald Corp, Lidmila Dankova, Iva Fleischhansova, Eugene Gates, Marie J. Harvat, Paul Hartl, Ludmila Hatrick, Karel Janovicky, Josef Kapral, Alena Kapralova, Antonin Kubalek, Jiri Macek, Fred McGregor, Graham Melville-Mason, Geoff Piper, Milos Stedron, Kass Sunderji, Geraldine Thomsen-Muchova, Greg Terian, Marco del Vaglio, Tomas Visek, Hanus Weigl, and Matthias Wurz.

We also wish to thank all the others who promoted Kapralova and / or assisted our work in 2001: Jaroslava Babanova, Denise Ball, Mikolas Bek, Natalia Borodin, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Claudio Canal, Czech Cultural Centre in London, Czech Cultural Centre in Paris, Czech Music Information Centre in Prague, Czech Radio 3 (Vltava), Czech Television (Studio Brno), Marie Dubina, Dvorak Society of Great Britain, Leos Faltus, Lubomir Fendrych, Lenka Foltynova, Halka Friedmannova, Eric Friesen, Erika Fronkova, Jaroslav Gagan, Goldsmiths College, Michael Haas, Hartl Sala LLP, Alan Houtchens, Allan Kozinn, Marie Kucerova, Erik Levi, Jenny Lin, Mark Ludwig, Alexandra Lukasova, Judith Mabary, Malcolm MacDonald, Lubos Marecek, Martina Muchova and Bohuslav Martinu Memorial in Policka, Barbora Osvaldova, Bedrich Prochazka, Public Radio for Eastern New York and Western New England, Vlasta Reittererova, Louise Sauve-Dubois, Jeanne E. Shaffer, Southeastern Public Radio, Vilem Tausky, Pierre Therien, University of Michigan School of Music, University of Virginia, Michael Wellner-Pospisil, Jiri Zahradka, Eva Zajickova, and Eva Zamecnikova.

Prepared by Karla Hartl, Chair, The Kapralova Society. Toronto, March 2002.