1999

society

The society continued to grow so that at the end of the year it had members residing in fourteen countries: Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Great Britain, Holland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Mexico, South Africa, and United States.

In 1999, we focused our efforts on mapping numerous private and institutional collections of Kapralova related materials in the Czech Republic and abroad and collecting copies of these documents. The originals remain largely inaccessible to the general public. Over the next couple of years, we will continue identifying important sources of Kapralova research materials and making this information available on our website.

In 1999, thanks to the dedicated efforts of our members and supporters, we successfully promoted Kapralova's music both in her homeland and abroad. Last year, a number of reviews of her music appeared in a variety of music publications, including the prestigeous BBC Music Magazine (thanks to our member Jan Smaczny). Thanks to two other members - conductor Matthias Wurz and producer Harry-Imre Dijkstra - Kapralova's music was also broadcast by radio stations in Austria and Holland. Besides these important efforts of individual members it is our website that has been instrumental in promoting the composer.

In 1999, a number of performances of Kapralova's music took place at a variety of concert venues both in and outside the Czech Republic. We would like to take this opportunity to thank the following artists for their important contribution to the Kapralova cause: Tomas Visek, Sabina Vajdova, Zuzana Fiserova and North Bohemian Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Christopher Campestrini, Ars Cameralis, M.Barta, Beata Zadrapova, Renata Ardasevova, Mari Tokuda, Kanako Endo, Patricia Garcia Torres and Orquesta de Camara de Bellas Artes under the baton of Gisele Ben-Dor, Phillipa Dames-Longworth and Stephen Gutman.

Since its creation in 1998, our website has become an important source of information not only on Kapralova but also other women in music who have been promoted through our Women in Music Internet Project. In 1999, in collaboration with Dr. Jan Kralik from the Czech Academy of Arts and Sciences, we designed webpages in Czech and English promoting the life and work of the famous Czech soprano Emmy Destinn to comemmorate her anniversary in 2000. Dr. Eugene Gates of the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto has provided material for another webpage - The Women Composer Question, a comprehensive bibliography on women composers.

Finally, we would like to thank all those members who have assisted our work in 1999: Jindra Bartova, David Bloch, Milos Brabec, Zdenek Cupak, Harry-Imre Dijkstra, Erik Entwistle, Jarmila Gabrielova, Eugene Gates, Ludmila Hatrick, Peter Herbert, Josef and Alena Kapralovi, Antonin Kubalek, Jiri Macek, Jonathan Magee, Graham Melville-Mason, Jaroslav Mihule, Vera Rudolfova, Jan Smaczny, Kass Sunderji, Gregory Terian, Mari Tokuda, Tomas Visek, Matthias Wurz and Chris Zappala.

Prepared by Karla Hartl, Chair, The Kapralova Society. Toronto, March 2000.