2012

The most important project initiated and financially assisted by the Kapralova Society in 2012 was the new recording of Kapralova's String Quartet, op. 8, released in October in partnership with Czech Radio's label Radioservis. While there have been prior releases of the composition (by Studio Matous in 1998 and by ArcoDiva in 2006), the new recording is informed by the most recent Kapralova scholarship and is as close to an authentic interpretation of the work as is possible. Its performers follow the original autograph score which was subjected to cuts in previous recordings. The Radioservis recording is by Skampa Quartet – one of the top Czech ensembles. Besides Kapralova's only quartet, the CD also features the world premiere of Vaclav Kapral's String Quartet No. 1 and Martinu's String Quartet No. 5. The CD liner notes have been written by Kapralova (and Martinu) scholars Erik Entwistle, Judith Mabary, and Marta Blalock.

Kapralova's music was again performed worldwide last year, with her art songs, the string quartet, the piano preludes, and the piano concerto being among the most popular. The composer's music was also programmed at a music festival and a national music competition last year. The Festival international de quatuors a cordes du Luberon (France) programmed Kapralova's string quartet (its live performance by Kapralova Quartet was recorded for Radio France), while Canadian Music Competition (Toronto) presented the composer's art songs, performed by Vancouver's soprano Teyia Kasahara who won the provincial finals with this repertoire. Kapralova's music was also featured in record-breaking 22 radio broadcasts in Australia, Canada, Czech Republic, France, the Netherlands, and the United States. The participating radio networks included four national broadcasters: ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation), Radio France, Czech Radio, and Vara Radio (the Netherlands).

Kapralova's music was also reviewed in several music magazines and e-zines in 2012. All reviewers focused on Czech Radio's CD recording of Kapralova's Piano Concerto in D Minor, released at the end of 2011 with the assistance of the Society. The reviews appeared in Harmonie (Veroslav Nemec), Opus Musicum (Jindra Bartova), Nuova e Nostre (Marco del Vaglio), The Dvorak Society for Czech and Slovak Music Newsletter (Greg Terian), Kapralova Society Journal (Michelle Latour), and Criticaclassica.com (Marco del Vaglio).

The Kapralova Companion, the first English language monograph on the composer, published in 2011 by Lexington Books, also received favourable reviews last year. They appeared in Opus Musicum (Monika Hola), The Dvorak Society for Czech and Slovak Music Newsletter (Peter Herbert), Journal for the International Alliance for Women in Music (Michelle Latour), and ForumOpera.com (Nicholas Derny). The most important critical acclaim, however, came with the nomination of the book for the 2011 Award of the F.X. Salda Foundation. The Kapralova Companion made the shortlist for this distinguished prize that recognizes important contributions to art history and criticism.

In addition to these reviews, several articles on Kapralova's life and music were published in 2012. Kapralova Society Journal alone printed four texts on the subject. The spring issue featured Martin Kostas's article "An Analysis of Compositional Methods Applied in Kapralova's Cantata Ilena, op. 15" that provided a unique insight by the author, who in 2007 finished Ilena<'s orchestration, into the most important choral work composed by Kapralova. Michelle Latour's text "Kapralova's Vteriny, op. 18," published in the same issue, provided a useful analysis of the most diverse collection of art songs written by Kapralova for various occasions and dedicatees. The fall issue featured an excellent essay by Diane Paige, "Kapralova and the Muses: Understanding the Qualified Composer," and Karla Hartl's text "Kapralova's Piano Concerto in D Minor, op. 7" that focused on the reception of the work when it was first performed in 1935 in Brno. Texts published in other periodicals and e-zines included a French language feature "Vitezslava Kapralova. Portrait amoureux et musical," written for ForumOpera.com by Nicholas Derny, "Vítezslava Kaprálová: Nejvetsi ceska skladatelka," written for FemmeFatale by Valerie Kucharova, and Karla Hartl's interview about the composer for Canadian bi-weekly New Homeland.

Kapralova's life and music was also the subject of one thesis in 2012. The thesis "Étude sur le cycle Navždy, opus 12" was written by Anaďs Maillard de la Morandais as part of meeting her Bachelor degree requirements at the Kunstuniversität Graz in Austria. An important contribution to Kapralova's bibliography last year was a chapter on Kapralova in Ceska hudebni avantgarda (Czech Musical Avant-Garde) by Jiri Macek (Litera Proxima publishers).

In 2012, the Society put out the tenth volume of its online journal of women in music, Kapralova Society Journal, publishing research by Diane Paige, Michelle Latour, Martin Kostas, and Karla Hartl. Furthermore, Arturo Desimone's interview of Maria Segura-Thijssen, printed in the spring issue of the journal, highlighted some of the challenges facing today's women conductors.

The Society's databases of women composers and conductors and other online resources on women in music continue to be a main attraction for visitors to our website and are frequently bookmarked by online discussion groups and blogs, and linked to by college and public libraries worldwide.

We would like to thank the following artists who performed Kapralova's music in Canada, Czech Republic, France, Germany, United Kingdom, and the United States in 2012 (in alphabetical order): Thomas Bandy, Justin Berkowitz, Benjamin Berman, Olivia Betzen, Renata Bialasova, Leah Bobbey, Joshua Borths, Sara Davis Buechner, Kimberly Cann, Cristina Castaldi, Timothy Cheek, Antonina Chekhovskaya, Fangfei Chen, Tim Cheung, Jeremy Crosmer, Adrian van Dongen, Rochelle Ellis, Angy Estrada, Maureen Ferguson, Heather Gardner, Peter Geisselbrecht, Jonas Hacker, Marta Herman, John Hummel, Ji Hea Hwang, Helena Jirikovska, Grant Jones, Teyia Kasahara, Elena Lacheva, Emily Lai, Michelle Latour, Tim Lissimore, Adaiha Macadem-Somer, Mariah Mlynarek, Maikai Nash, Nicholas Nestorak, Maggie Nicholas, Gene Philley, Lukas Polak, Alice Rajnohova, Christine Ella Reinard, Kate Rosen, Katherine Sanford, Matthew Schellhorn, Rebekah Schweitzer, Radim Sedmidubsky, Sylvia Shadick-Taylor, Whitney-Leigh Sloan, Daniela Souckova, Kate Steinbeck, Xavier Suarez, Dale Tsang-Hall, Jan Filip Tupa, Katherine Vokes.

We also wish to thank our partners, friends, and all the others who promoted Kapralova and/or assisted our efforts in 2012: 4 MBS Classic FM (Australia), ABC Classic FM (Australian Broadcasting Corporation), Marian Arnold, Petr Bakla, Jindra Bartova, Michael Beckerman, Rebecca Berg, Berkeley Arts Festival, Tamara Blahova, Marta Blalock, Alena Borkova, Ales Brezina, Tim Buck, Canadian Music Competition, CKWR Waterloo, Classics 98.7 FM Prague, criticaclassica.com, Czech and Slovak Association of Canada-Edmonton Branch, Czech Centre in Paris, Czech Music Quarterly, Czech Radio 3 (Vltava), Czech Radio (Brno), Czech Radio (Ceske Budejovice), Czech Radio (Radioservis), Czechoslovak Association of Arts and Sciences of Alberta, Thea Derks, Nicholas Derny, Arturo Desimone, Vera Dobesova, The Dvorak Society for Czech and Slovak Music Newsletter, Erik Entwistle, FemmeFatale, Festival international de quatuors a cordes du Luberon, ForumOpera.com, Eugene Gates, Barry Gorman, Harmonie, Peter Herbert, Jan Hlavac, Monika Hola, Lenka Hradilkova, Janacek Academy of Performing Arts, Olga Jezkova, Journal of the IAWM, Juilliard School, Lenka Kilic, Vera Kohoutova, Katerina Konopaskova, Martin Kostas, Kunstuniversität Graz, Thomas Krebs, Michelle Latour, Lexington Books, Sarah Meredith Livingston, Judith Mabary, Jiri Macek, Anaďs Maillard de la Morandais, the Bohuslav Martinu Institute, Rudolf Matys, Kathleen McMorrow, Eve Meyer, Moravian Master Class in Namest nad Oslavou, Veroslav Nemec, New Homeland, Nocturnes in the City, Anna Novotna, Nuova e Nostre, Oberlin Conservatory, Opus Musicum, Diane Paige, Pan Harmonia, Milica Paranosic, Zuzana Petrášková, Tom Quick, Radio France, Radio Vara 4, Anne-Charlotte Rémond, Marvin Rosen, Rutgers University, F.X. Salda Foundation, Zoja Seyckova, Sidney Sussex Music Society, Jan-Olof Sjostrom, Slovenska hudba, Greg Terian, Emily Todd, University of Michigan, Marco del Vaglio, Jiri Vejvoda, VivaVoce, Wirth Institute for Austrian and Central European Studies, WPRB Princeton.