Vitezslava Kapralova, Czech composer and conductor, b. Brno (now the Czech Republic), January 24, 1915; d. Montpellier (France), June 16, 1940.
Kapralova began composing at the age of nine and at fifteen she entered the Brno Conservatory where she studied composition with Vilem Petrzelka and conducting with Zdenek Chalabala. She graduated with an award-winning Piano Concerto that she conducted herself. In 1935 she moved to Prague and continued her musical education at the Prague Conservatory, attending the masterclasses of Vitezslav Novak (composition) and Vaclav Talich (conducting). In 1937 she received a scholarship to study in France, at the Ecole Normale de Musique in Paris, and became a pupil of Charles Munch (1937-1939) and briefly also of Nadia Boulanger (spring 1940?). She also studied composition as a private student of Bohuslav Martinu (1937-1939) whose Harpsichord Concerto she conducted in Paris (1938). Her award-winning Military Sinfonietta, premiered in Prague in 1937 by the Czech Philharmonic and conducted by the composer, opened the 1938 ISCM Festival in London. At this occasion, Kapralova conducted the work with the BBC Orchestra. Following the German occupation of Czechoslovakia on 15 March 1939 Kapralova decided to stay in exile in France. In April 1940, she married the writer Jiri Mucha. Only two months later her marriage and musical career were cut short by her tragic death in Montpellier, allegedly from miliary tuberculosis.

Kapralova's life has inspired no less than two monographs and three novels. Her works were published by Pazdirek, Edition Hudebni Matice, Melantrich, Svoboda, La Sirène Editions Musicales, Editio Supraphon, Editio Praga, Amos Editio, Czech Radio Publishing House and Baerenreiter, and released on record by Supraphon and on compact disc by Northeastern Records, Stylton, Studio Matous, Tomas Visek, and Supraphon.

Kapralova's music was critically acclaimed during her lifetime and continues to be praised by music historians today: "There is no doubt that had she lived she would have become one of the greatest women composers in Europe." (Hartog, Howard [Ed.]: European Music in the Twentieth Century. Penguin Books: 1961. P. 322). In 1946, in appreciation of her distinctive contribution, the foremost academic institution in the country - the Czech Academy of Arts and Sciences - awarded Kapralova membership in memoriam (by 1948 this honour was bestowed on only 10 women, out of 648 members of the Academy). In 1981, the same institution appraised her work as "representing a distinctive and progressive moment in the development of Czech music in the first half of the twentieth century." (History of Czech Music Culture 1890-1945, p. 289). In 1999, after the release of the composer's landmark CD by Studio Matous, BBC Music Magazine (June 1999) hailed Kapralova as "a genuinely fascinating voice in inter-war Czech music".

The Kapralova Society is a non-profit arts organization based in Toronto, Canada. Founded by Karla Hartl in 1998, the society's mission is to promote interest in Kapralova and other women in music through education, research, and special projects, in collaboration with other organizations. We encourage and support recording and publishing of Kapralova's music, and seek to build awareness of women's contributions to musical life through our online resources and other support.

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