Pozvanka Josefa Kaprala
Dopis predsedkyne Karly Hartlove
Zprava Very Rudolfove
Prednaska Jiriho Macka

2002

society

By the end of 2002, the society had members residing in seventeen countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Great Britain, Holland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Mexico, South Africa, Spain and the United States. In September, a group of members from the Czech Republic and other friends of Kapralova's music first met in the composer's beloved summer retreat Tri Studne.

One of the most important events of 2002 was publishing Prélude de Noël, a charming piece for chamber orchestra, composed by Kapralova at Christmas 1939 for Radio France. The work is the first of several orchestral compositions by Kapralova selected for future publication by the Czech Radio Publishing House. Another good news of the year was the decision of Max Eschig Publishers to re-release the 1938 edition of Kapralova's Variations sur le Carillon de l'eglise St-Etienne du Mont, op. 16, acquired with the catalogue of La Sirene Editions Musicales.

Other significant events of the last year included world premieres of two Kapralova compositions: Concertino for Violin, Clarinet and Orchestra, op. 21 and song cycle Sparks from Ashes, op. 5. Both took place at the beginning of the year: Concertino received its public premiere from the Hradec Kralove Philharmonic, with conductor Tomas Hanus and soloists Pavel Wallinger and Pavel Busek, in Hradec Kralove (Czech Republic) on January 10; Sparks from Ashes was given its first performance by Timothy Cheek and Freda Herseth at a recital of the University of Michigan on January 24. Another important event was the New York premiere of April Preludes, brilliantly performed by Jenny Lin on February 19. April Preludes and Kapralova's art songs were performed most often last year, followed by her compositions for violin and piano and her string quartet. The string quartet, performed by Kapralova Quartet, was also recorded by the Czech Radio.

Kapralova's music was broadcast last year by the Czech Radio (Vltava) and public radio networks in Chicago and Princeton. In addition, Detroit Public Radio's producer Celeste Headlee prepared a brief program promoting the aforementioned University of Michigan recital. The recital was recorded and broadcast repeatedly by the university tv station during the year. Kapralova's music was also promoted to audiences at the Art Film Festival in Asolo (Italy) that featured a documentary about the composer's life and work - Last Concertino - produced by the Czech Television (Brno Studio) in 2001.

Reviews of Kapralova's music were published in New York Times (Anne Midgette), Classics Today (Victor Carr), VivaVoce (Constanze Holze), Dvorak Society Newsletter No. 58 and 61 (Karel Janovicky, Douglas Hollick), and www.iperdue.com (Marco del Vaglio). Articles promoting Kapralova's life and music appeared in Music@Michigan, Vol. 35/2, VivaVoce 2002/62, Czech Music (The Journal of the Dvorak Society for Czech and Slovak Music), Vol. 21, and Zpravodaj K2001, 2002/9. Zpravodaj K2001 published an article by Josef Kapral, VivaVoce published German translation of an article by Gates & Hartl (first published in Tempo 213), and Czech Music reprinted three texts on Kapralova: the article by Gates and Hartl and English translation of articles by Alena Nemcova (Opus Musicum, 1991/6) and Ales Brezina (Schweizer Jahrbuch fur Musikwissenschaft, 1997). Finally, Sursum (Tisnov, Czech Rep.) published second edition of Jindrich Uher's novel-biography of Kapralova, and the composer was also mentioned in Jiri Mihule's comprehensive new biography of Bohuslav Martinu, published by Karolinum (Prague).

The composer's life and work were topics of two pre-recital lectures, presented by Karla Hartl and Zdenka Brodska at the University of Michigan in January. Kapralova's life and work were also promoted at two academic conferences: the first organized by Cambridge University in April, the second by College Music Society in Kansas City in September. Dr. Timothy Cheek, member of our society and passionate advocate of Kapralova's music, presented at both conferences his paper 'Navzdy Kapralova': Reevaluating Czech composer Vitezslava Kapralova through her thirty songs.

Kapralova also inspired two new undergraduate theses (Department of Musicology, Charles University in Prague and Department of Cultural Anthropology, Pilsen University) and even music by other composers: her Partita was an inspiration for Katerina Ruzickova's Life Attitudes for Piano and Strings, and one of her April Preludes provided a theme for Prof.Dr. Wolfgang Mastnak's Klangmomente für klavier solo nach motiven von Vitezslava Kapralova.

Finally, after Venus Quartet's decision to change its name to Kapralova Quartet in 2001, the same tribute was paid to Kapralova by the Music School of Brno-Kralovo Pole in 2002. The school's new name Zakladni umelecka skola Vitezslavy Kapralove, awarded to the institution thanks to the dedicated efforts of Jarmila Mrackova, the school's former headmaster and member of our society, will promote the composer to the next generations of young musicians.

Our online resources on women in music continue to attract visitors, among them many musicians and musicology students. Last year we added to these resources a database of women conductors and created several new pages dedicated to individual conductors: Miriam Nemcova (Czech Republic), Odaline de la Martinez (USA-Great Britain) and Carmen Moral (Peru-France). We also designed a webpage promoting Czech composers Olga Jezkova and Petra Gavlasova.

Another online initiative of the society - Czech Music in Exile - now celebrates the life and music of sixteen Czech composers who left their native Czechoslovakia during the 20th-century in search of freedom from either fascist of communist state oppression. The project is designed to preserve and protect the memory of these gifted composers, some of whom remain little known.

A very special thanks to Liane Curtis for her generosity and continuous support to the Kapralova cause.

We would also like to acknowledge the following members of the Kapralova Society who helped us carry out our mandate last year (in alphabetical order): Jindra Bartova, Milos Brabec, Timothy Cheek, Lidmila Dankova, Erik Entwistle, Iva Fleischhansova, Eugene Gates, Paul Hartl, Constanze Holze, Karel Janovicky, Alena and Josef Kapral, Jan Kux, Jiri Macek, Fred McGregor, Graham Melville-Mason, Jaroslav Mihule, Jarmila Mrackova, Michael S. Pearl, Vera Rudolfova, Milos Stedron, Gregory Terian, Marco del Vaglio, Tomas Visek and Hanus Weigl.

We thank the following artists who promoted the composer's music in Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, and the United States during 2002 (in chronological order): Irena Houkalova, Jaroslav Saroun, Pavel Busek, Pavel Wallinger, Tomas Hanus, the Hradec Kralove Philharmonic, Jenny Lin, Stephen Shipps, Timothy Cheek, Freda Herseth, Caroline Helton, Melody Racine, Anthony Elliot, Marcia Porter, Hana Srubarova, Karel Jasa, Katerina Kraftova, Erik Entwistle, women's choir Vlastimila and conductor Marie Hejduskova, Hawthorne String Quartet, Martina Novakova, Katerina Machackova, Danuse Kristkova, Kapralova Quartet, Jana Tetourova, Lenka Rihova, Iva Fleischhansova, Jacqueline Metcalf, Tomas Visek, Jennifer Goltz, Dianna Dumpel, Megan Besley, Steven McGhee, Bonnie Wagner, Shannon McGinnis, Zuzana Fiserova, Eliska Novotna, Tereza Gregorova, Marta Dembicka, Jarmila Ceskova, Sabina Vajdova, Zdenek Plech, Renata Bialasova, Jana Stefackova and Claudio Canal.

We also wish to thank all the others who promoted Kapralova and / or assisted our work in 2002: Chris Anderson, Frantisek Bilek, Zdenka Brodska, Victor Carr, Chicago Radio Network, Czech Cultural Centre in Paris, Czech Radio Publishing House, Czech Radio (Vltava), Vera Dolezalova, Dvorak Society for Czech and Slovak Music, Max Eschig Publishers, Hartl Sala Bell LLP, Celeste Headlee, Tomas Hejzlar, Douglas Hollick, Olga Jezkova, Monika Kapralova, Marie Kucerova, Jenny Lin, Lucent Technologies, Mark Ludwig, Anne Midgette, Bedrich Prochazka, Radio France, Milan Slavik, Lenka Stranska, Sursum, hotel U Loubu, University of Michigan Office of the Vice President, University of Michigan School of Music, University of Michigan TV Channel 22, WDET Detroit, WPRB Princeton, and Zakladni umelecka skola Vitezslavy Kapralove.

Prepared by Karla Hartl, Chair, The Kapralova Society. Toronto, March 2003.