2007

The year 2007 was yet another good year for the Society, as we were able to initiate and assist several new important projects, some of which are long-term and will be completed in upcoming years. We also published a fifth volume of our online journal of women in music - Kapralova Society Journal. The spring issue featured two texts on Kapralova: an article on Kapralova's piano music by Olga Settari (Masaryk University) and the fourth part of Karla Hartl's chronology of Kapralova's life events; the fall issue featured an article on Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel by Eugene Gates (Royal Conservatory of Music, Toronto).

A key event of the year was the world premiere of Kapralova's orchestral cantata Ilena in Besedni dum in Brno on May 31. The impetus for this initiative, which included finishing orchestration of the score, came from the Society that also financially assisted the premiere, produced by the Janacek Academy of Performing Arts Faculty of Music in Brno. The faculty member and the member of our advisory committee, Dr. Jindra Bartova, took on coordinating the project. Martin Kostas, a graduate student of the composition program at the Academy, finished the work's orchestration under the watchful eye of composer Arnost Parsch. The premiere took place during the concert celebrating the 60th anniversary of the Janacek Academy, featuring the Brno Philharmonic conducted by the Academy's student Ondrej Tajovsky, and the soloists Irena Lukacova, Vaclav Barth and Martin Frybort, with Roman Groszmann as reciter. The student and faculty choirs Brno Academic Choir and Gaudeamus Choir Brno were directed by Katarina Maslejova who meticulously prepared the excellent choirs for performance, in consultation with her teacher Josef Pancik. As a result, their performance of Kapralova's choral writing, which is the backbone of this piece, was truly inspiring. The premiere was recorded by the Czech Radio (Brno Studio) and broadcast in a radio premiere by Czech Radio 3 (Vltava) on November 9.

Other notable performances in 2007 included the US premiere of Five Pieces for Piano and Sonata Appassionata. They were both performed by Boston-based pianist Virginia Eskin on March 3 at the Keene State College in New Hampshire and broadcast live three days later by the WGBH Radio 89.7 studio in Boston, Massachusetts. Eskin's performance of the sonata was the first since the work's premiere in 1934, when it was performed at a concert of the Brno Conservatory by Kapralova's classmate Frantisek Jilek, who was to become one of the conductors of the Brno Philharmonic. On May 14, Kapralova's art song January for voice and quintet was given its European premiere in Amsterdam by Irene Maessen, Eleonore Pameijer, Marijke van Kooten, Jacobien Rozemond, Michael Stirling, and Marcel Worms. On July 28 the work received its Czech premiere during the Ameropa Chamber Music Festival (performed by Angela Peterson, Yuka Hayashi, Veronika Mojzesova, Petr Mojzes, Pavel Cadek, and Janet DeMoss). Finally, on December 26, Czech Radio 3 broadcast Prélude de Noël, performed by Bohuslav Martinu Chamber Orchestra with Petr Vronsky.

The most often performed and broadcast works in 2007 were the composer's art songs and chamber music. Kapralova's string quartet, her song Leden, Variations sur le Carillon, and April Preludes were the most popular with the broadcasters. Kapralova's music was also featured in two major radio series. The first was a 5-part series Componist van de week (Composer of the Week), written and produced by Thea Derks for VARA Radio 4 in the Netherlands. This program was assisted by our Society and the Czech Radio (Brno Studio), and featured Kapralova's vocal, piano, chamber, and orchestral music. The second, a five-part series Pariz a zeny skladatelky (Paris and Women Composers), written and produced by Jan Hlavac for Czech Radio 3, featured Kapralova and Germaine Tailleferre. In total, Kapralova's music was promoted in the record number of 23 radio broadcasts and the participating radio stations included three national broadcasters: Czech Radio 3, Vara 4, and Radio Österreich 1.

Kapralova's music was also programmed at several conferences and music festivals last year: at the MTNA Collaborative Conference 2007 in Toronto in March, at the Rockport Chamber Music Festival in Massachussets in June, at the Ameropa Chamber Music Festival in Prague (Czech Republic) and the Styrian Festival in Graz (Austria) in July, the Monadnock Music Festival in New Hampshire in August, and the Congreso Internacional de Mujeres en el Arte in Madrid in November.

Last year, several articles about the composer appeared in specialized periodicals and popular magazines and dailies. Kapralova Society Journal published Olga Settari's article "Vitezslava Kapralova's Piano Works" and Karla Hartl's research "Kapralova's Life Chronology (Part IV)." Uitkrant Amsterdam featured an article by Thea Derks "Gloedvolle muziek van Vitezslava Kapralova," and MF Dnes printed Jana Soukupova's popular text "Lasky a smrt Vitezslavy Kapralove." The composer was also mentioned in the article by Hynek Jurman "Omyly Tradovane: Chodili Mucha a Martinu kolem Sykovce?" printed in Bystricko. Kapralova also received a comprehensive entry in the online directory Music und Gender im Internet, written by Gabriele Jonte and drawing on research published by our Society.

Kapralova's music was also the subject of three reviews in 2007. Two of them covered the discs released by Supraphon and ArcoDiva: the Supraphon recording was reviewed by Peter Palmer in Tempo, and the ArcoDiva recording of Kapralova's string quartet was reviewed by Peter Herbert in the Dvorak Society Newsletter. The third review, by Olga Settari for Opus musicum, concerned the first, critical edition of Kapralova's Sonata Appassionata. There were also several performance reviews published last year. The world premiere of Kapralova's orchestral cantata was reviewed in MF Dnes (Jan Spacek), Hudebni rozhledy (Jindra Bartova), and Portal Ceske sbory (Frantisek Nantl); performances of other works were reviewed by Jan Trka (the Charles University Medical Faculty website) and Richard Houdek (Berkshire Eagle).

Kapralova's life and music was also a topic of three masters' degree theses completed last year. Her piano preludes were analyzed by Marie Lapkova (University of Hradec Kralove) in her thesis entitled "Vitezslava Kapralova: Dubnova preludia (analyza dila)", Kapralova's orchestral works were discussed by Martin Kostas (Janacek Academy of Performing Arts) in his thesis "Instrumentacni promeny Vitezslavy Kapralove," and her childhood compositions were analyzed by Dagmar Janeckova in her thesis "Rana tvorba Vitezslavy Kapralove: skladby z detstvi".

women in music

The fall issue of the Kapralova Society Journal featured an article by Eugene Gates about one of the most remarkable women composers of the Romantic era, Fanny Mendelssohn. Our online resources on women in music continued to receive positive feedback and attention of online community. We continued to host pages of selected women composers and conductors, and financially assisted the release of music by Olga Jezkova, a composer from the Czech Republic.

acknowledgements

We wish to thank the following performers who promoted the composer's music in Austria, Canada, the Czech Republic, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, and the United States in 2007 (in alphabetical order): Marja Bon, Vaclav Barth, Brno Academic Choir, Brno Philharmonic, Andrea Brozakova, Pavel Cadek, Susan Campos, Stephanie Chase, Timothy Cheek, Cuarteto Acimus, Diane Cushing, Janet DeMoss, Virginia Eskin, Marino Formenti, Martin Frybort, Irena Furbachova, Gaudeamus Choir Brno, Peter Geisselbrecht, Lucie Hajkova, Yuka Hayashi, Whitney Hollis, Kapralova Quartet, Anna Jelinkova, Marijke van Kooten, Jarmila Kozderkova, Marie Lapkova, Michelle Latour, Irena Lukacova, Irene Maessen, Bohuslav Martinu Chamber Orchestra, Katarina Maslejova, Petr Mojzes, Veronika Mojzesova, Vojtech Novak, Naomi Oliphant, Eleonore Pameijer, Kathleen Payne, Angela Peterson, Soncia Szabo Reynolds, Jacobien Rozemond, Miron Smidak, Michael Stirling, Ondrej Tajovsky, Petr Vasicek, Marta Vaskova, Marta Angela Vavrova, Tomas Visek, Ladislava Vondrackova, Petr Vronsky, Daniel Weeks, and Marcel Worms.

We would also like to thank our partners, friends, and all the others who assisted our efforts in 2007: ACIMUS, Ameropa Chamber Music Festival, Amos Editio, Amsterdam Weekly, Jindriska Bartova, Michael Beckerman, Associazione Bequatro, Black Stump Newsletter, Bluffton University, Peter Bree, Susan Campos, Claudio Canal, Greggory Darrel Cannady, Angelica Castello, Timothy Cheek, Congresso Internacional de Mujeres en el Arte, Liane Curtis, Czech Museum of Music, Czech Radio (D-Dur), Czech Radio (Studio Brno), Czech Radio 3 (Vltava), Lidmila Dankova, Dayton Art Institute, Thea Derks, Divadlo J.K. Tyla, Jan Egerle, Erik Entwistle, Cathy Fuller, Eugene Gates, HAMU, Paul Hartl, Dagmar Henzlikova, Peter Herbert, Jan Hlavac, Richard Houdek, Janacek Academy of Performing Arts Faculty of Music, Dagmar Janeckova, Gabriele Jonte, Hynek Jurman, Katztown University, Keene State CollegeWomen's Studies, Kentucky State University, KFAI Radio Without Boundaries, KMFA 89.5 Austin, Martin Kostas, Antonin Kubalek, Marie Lapkova, Ray Latham, Vera Lejskova, Luister, Alexandra Lukasova, Judith Mabary, Jiri Macek, Jurek Massner, Katerina Mayrova, Kathryn Mishell, Eve Meyer, The Monadnock Music Festival, Bas Morsch, MusicWorks, MTNA, Frantisek Nantl, Veroslav Nemec, Peter Palmer, Josef Pancik, Arnost Parsch, Pipedreams Public Radio, Geoffrey Piper, Radio Österreich 1, Rockport Chamber Music Festival, Olga Settari, Nakita Shedd, Shenandoah Conservatory, Ada Slivanska, Leo Smit Foundation, Jana Soukupova, Jan Spacek, Annemarie Spoek, The Styrian Festival, Transylvania University, Jan Trka, Uitrkant Amsterdam, University of Hradec Kralove School of Music, Marco del Vaglio, Vara Radio 4, Heinz Wallisch, WDAV 89.9 Public Radio (North Carolina), WGBH 89.7 Boston, and Xavier University Music Department.