2005

In 2005, we published a third volume of our periodical and changed its title to Kapralova Society Journal to better reflect the scholarly quality and direction of its research. The spring issue contained Kapralova related research by Alan Houtchens and Karla Hartl, and an introduction to the topic of women and music by Eugene Gates. The fall issue included an article on Kapralova's art songs by Timothy Cheek and a text on women composers by Eugene Gates.

The year 2005 was yet another outstanding year for Kapralova, thanks to an unprecedented number of 28 broadcasts of her music worldwide, centred mainly around January and June, to mark the anniversaries of the composer's birth and death. Several new radio documentaries were produced just for the occasion. Among them the most important were a 105-minute documentary produced for Czech Radio 3 by Jan Hlavac (Brno Studio), and a 60-minute radio documentary produced for KMFA Austin by Kathryn Mishell.

On the publishing front, we saw our most ambitious project - a critical edition of Kapralova's art songs - successfully completed. The initiative was undertaken in partnership with Amos Editio, a publishing house based in Prague. The Society covered the production costs of the publication, while Timothy Cheek, Assistant Professor at the University of Michigan School of Music and a member of our Society, donated his expertise to the project as the publication editor. We are also very grateful to Veroslav Nemec, chief editor of Amos Editio, for believing in the project and providing it with care that went well beyond his usual duties and proved essential to the successful completion of this initiative. The publication will be available from its publisher in early 2006.

The songs were not the only Kapralova works published last year, however. In April, the Czech Radio Publishing House made available a new edition of Military Sinfonietta, the composer's best known orchestral composition. We wish to acknowledge the publisher and the project's editor Olga Jezkova in particular for their continuous interest in Kapralova's music. As part of our campaign to promote the publication, we supported two performances of the sinfonietta presented by the Akademie Praha Chamber Orchestra in June and October in Prague.

Last year was also a great year in terms of live performances of Kapralova's music. Kapralova's art songs and chamber music - especially her string quartet, violin works, preludes and variations for solo piano, and the cello ritornel - were programmed most often. Kapralova's most frequently performed orchestral works included Partita and Military Sinfonietta; however, it was the Prélude de Noël, Kapralova's festive miniature for chamber orchestra, that was the most eagerly awaited event of the year, as the work had not been performed in the composer's homeland for about five decades. Its revival performance by Akademie Orchestra on December 7 in Prague was financially assisted by our Society. Another important Kapralova event of the year was a series of concerts featuring Kapralova's music during the Komponistinen und Ihr Werk festival that celebrated the music of Czech women composers. The event, organized under the artistic direction of Christel Nies, took place in Kassel (Germany) in November. The Society was delighted to make a small financial contribution in support of the project that featured 13 of Kapralova's works.

In 2005, Kapralova's music received rave reviews in several music magazines and online platforms that included Fanfare (a review by Barry Brenesal), Muzyka21 (Angelika Przezdziek), Agire (Marco del Vaglio), and All Music Guide (David Lewis). Studio Matous' landmark compact disc of Kapralova's music received high marks from Patricia Goodson who reviewed it for Encore (Czech Radio 7). In addition, there were quite a few articles on Kapralova published last year. Kapralova Society Journal published an analytical essay "Navzdy (Forever) Kapralova: Reevaluating Czech composer Vitezslava Kapralova through her thirty songs" by Timothy Cheek, and re-printed an article by Alan Houtchens "Love's Labour's Lost: Martinu, Kapralova, and Hitler." The journal also published research by Karla Hartl "Kapralova's Correspondence with Otakar Sourek" and "Kapralova's Life Chronology (Part II)." Masaryk University's online periodical Acta Musicologica published Rudolf Pecman's article on Vaclav Kapral and his daughter Vitezslava "Pater & filia. Crta o Vaclavu Kapralovi a jeho dceri Vitezslave," while Zpravodaj Spolku pratel hudby pri SF Brno featured Alena Vesela's reminiscence "Vzpominka na Vitezslavu Kapralovou." The magazine Vlasta published Marcela Kolomacka's article "Vitezslava Kapralova: Mozart v divcich sateckach," and the composer was also mentioned in Jarmila Mrackova's text "Hudebni skladatele v Kralove Poli," published in Kralovopolske listy. Finally, the following Czech dailies featured articles commemorating the composer: Rovnost published Marie Sotolova's text "Vitka, Vitulka, Vitezslava Kapralova," Plzensky denik featured Vaclav Sladky's article "Hudba Vitezslavy Kapralove stale zni," and MF Dnes published Vera Drapalova's article "Skladatelka, ktera nosila jaro."

Kapralova's life and music were also a topic of several lectures last year. First of them was delivered by Dr. Milos Stedron on January 17 at the Jiri Mahen Library in Brno, at the occasion of the commemorative exhibit Zena mezi peti linkami, co-presented by Jiri Mahen Library, Kapralova's estate, and ZUS Vitezslavy Kapralove to mark the composer's birth anniversary. On April 5, Dr. Laura Kobayashi promoted Kapralova at the Music Teachers National Association Conference at Seattle, and on April 26, Dr. Jindra Bartova delivered her lecture on Kapralova at a recital dedicated to Kapralova's music, organized by Spolek pratel hudby pri Statni filharmonii Brno. Finally, on November 19, Dr. Timothy Cheek presented a lecture on Kapralova prior to his recital of the composer's songs at the Komponistinen und Ihr Werk festival in Kassel.

Kapralova's life and music continued to provide inspiration to fellow artists. Last year, her life story inspired Robert Gurdonark's piece of experimental electronics entitled Kapralova's Escape.

women in music

Our online resources on women in music continue to attract visitors to our website and receive endorsement from libraries across North America, Australia, and Europe. While our database of women conductors was mentioned last year by British Guardian and the Boston-based public radio WBUR, our database of women composers is regularly referred to by online music discussion groups. Thanks to Dr. Ellen J. Burns and her students at the University at Albany Departments of Music and Women's Studies, the latter database was developed substantially last year to make it one of the best lists on the Internet.

We wish to thank the Association of College Research Libraries and the following music departments, libraries, and schools of music for promoting our online resources on women and music: Brandeis University Libraries, Carroll College Corette Library, Cleveland State University Library, Duke University Libraries, Eastern Illinois University Booth Library, Middlesex University School of Arts, Oklahoma Baptist University, Saint Mary's College of California Library, San Antonio College Library, South Dakota State University I.D. Weeks Library, Southeastern Oklahoma State University H.G. Bennett Library, Stanford University Department of Music, Suffolk University M.F.Sawyer Library, Trinity University Library, University College Cork Department of Music, University of Adelaide Elder Music Library, University of Melbourne Music Library, University of North Texas Libraries, University of Queensland Department of Music, University of Virginia, University of Washington Libraries, University of Wisconsin Mills Music Library, Vanderbilt University Blair School of Music, and Yale University Library.

In 2005, we also made available two texts on the subject of women and music in our online journal. The articles "Where are all the women composers? Reclaiming a cultural heritage" and "Women composers: A critical review of the psychological literature," by Dr. Eugene Gates, offer an excellent introduction to this field of musicological research, while increasing the modest amount of scholarly texts on the subject available on the Internet.

As in the previous years, we continued to design and host pages of women composers and conductors: last year, we designed online presentations featuring American composer Kathryn Mishell, Czech composer Jana Barinkova, and Italian conductor Silvia Massarelli. We also continued to facilitate reviews, broadcasts, commissions and performances for young and emerging women composers from the Czech Republic. In 2005, we facilitated a broadcasting opportunity for Daniela Kosinova, a young composer from the Czech Republic, whose chamber work Omnia Vincit Amor, for mezzosoprano, baritone, and string quartet was streamed over the Internet by WPRB Princeton. We also assisted the women composers group Hudbaby to have their first CD, relesed with our financial assistance, reviewed by MusicWeb (UK), and connected the group with Pierrot Lunnaire Ensemble Vienna, an Austrian ensemble for contemporary music, and with German ensemble Meininger Trio. As a result, the Pierrot Lunnaire included music by a member of the Hudbaby group - Katerina Ruzickova - in their travelling concert series 2006. She also received a commission from the Meininger Trio.

acknowledgements

We wish to thank the following performers who promoted the composer's music in the Czech Republic, Germany, and the United States in 2005 (in alphabetical order): Akademie Praha Chamber Orchestra, Katerina Andelova, Ballet Ensemble of the National Theatre in Brno, Thomas Bandy, Norbert Baxa, Petra Besa, Irena Bezdickova, Renata Bialasova, Jarmila Ceskova, Timothy Cheek, Decin Symphony Orchestra, Marta Dembicka, Susan Gray, Anne Gross, Pavel Hryzak, Nicholas Hutchinson, Milan Kanak, Kapralova Quartet, Laura Kobayashi, Jakub Kozak, Katerina Kraftova, Sarka Kralova, Pavel Kratochvil, H. Krcova, Martinu Trio, Petra Moravcova, Gabriele Nies, Marie Novakova, Orchestra of the Janacek Opera, Matthew Piatt, M. Pimek, Zdenek Prosek, E. Seneklova, Kira Slovacek, Ondrej Spacek, Jana Stefackova, Kathleen Sullivan, Lorraine Sullivan, Marketa Toufarova, Sabina Vajdova, and the Vlastimila Women's Choir.

We would also like to thank our partners, friends, and all the others who supported our mandate in 2005: Steffen Ackerman, Acta Musicologica, Agire, All Music Guide, Amos Editio, Jindra Bartova, Michael Beckerman, Catherine Belyea, Klara Berankova, Frantisek Bilek, Barry Brenesal, Ellen J. Burns, CBC Radio 2, Timothy Cheek, Colin Clarke, Andrew Craig, Liane Curtis, Czech Alzheimer Society, Czech Radio (Studio Brno), Czech Radio (Studio Ostrava), Czech Radio 3 (Vltava), Czech Radio 7 (Praha), Czech Radio Publishing House, Czech Television, Lidmila Dankova, Diakonie Ceskobratrske cirkve evangelicke, Petr Dufek, Zdena Dufkova, Dvorak Society for Czech and Slovak Music, April Earley, Charles Eggen, Erik Entwistle, Fanfare, Kelly Ferjutz, Carla Franco, Eugene Gates, Patricia Goodson, Guardian Unlimited, Paul Hartl, Hartl Sala Bell LLP, Leda Hatrick, Jan Hlavac, Alan Houtchens, International Alliance for Women in Music, Tereza Jandura, Alena Jelenkova, Olga Jerabkova, Jersey City Board of Education, Gabriela Jezkova, Olga Jezkova, KAMU FM, Josef Kapral, IIdar Kharissov, KMFA Austin, Knihovna Jiriho Mahena, Ivona Konecna, Kralovopolske listy, Vladimir Kratky, H. Krcova, Mark Kroll, Antonin Kubalek, Andi Lamoreaux, Raymond Latham, Birgitta Lertséus, Mark Lester, David N. Lewis, Alexandra Lukasova, Jiri Macek, Frantisek Matejka, Lukas Matousek, Fred McGregor, Mestsky urad Brno-Kralovo Pole, MF Dnes, Kathryn Mishell, Jarmila Mrackova, Muzyka21, Veroslav Nemec, Christel Nies, Miroslav Novotny, Obecni urad Tri Studne, Eva Ociskova, Lubos Ondracek, Michael S. Pearl, Rudolf Pecman, Ivan Petrzelka, Plzensky denik, PROGLAS, Angelika Przezdziek, Ursula Rempel, Vaclav Richter, Marvin Rosen, Rovnost, RTBF Belgium, Ruthann Ruehr, Allen Schrott, Zoja Seyckova, Lubomira Sonkova, Marie Sotolova, Spolecnost Bohuslava Martinu v Brne, Spolecnost Vitezslavy Kapralove, Spolek pratel hudby pri Statni filharmonii Brno, Vaclav Sladky, Milos Stedron, students at the University at Albany Departments of Music and Women's Studies, Studio Matous, Kass Sunderji, Gregory Terian, Jana Turcinkova, Marco del Vaglio, Jana Vasatova, David Vaughan, Alena Vesela, WBUR Boston, Hanus Weigl, WFMT Chicago, WPR Wisconsin, WPRB Princeton, Ursula Ziegler-Reinhardt, ZUS Vitezslavy Kapralove, and ZUS Bohuslava Martinu.