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2015

Looking back at the year of 2015, it has been a wonderful and eventful ride, with more than a hundred events – concerts, festivals, broadcasts, conferences, exhibitions and special commemoration projects – taking place on four continents and in eleven countries during the centenary year. Most of these activities took place in the Czech Republic and in the United States, followed by the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Germany, Australia, Canada, Italy, Argentina, the Netherlands and Sweden. Those most significant should be mentioned here in a summary: the release of Kapralova's very own stamp by Czech Post in commemoration of her 100th birth anniversary in January; a two-day celebration of Kapralova's orchestral music by the Brno Philharmonic in February, recorded by Czech Radio to be released on record; a series of Kapralova dedicated broadcasts throughout the first half of the year, produced by Czech Radio; two new Kapralova publications – a very first French language monograph, published in the spring, and the first volume of the composer's collected correspondence, published in the fall; a grand, seven-day Kapralova Festival presented by the University of Michigan in September; a seminal five-hour radio documentary on Kapralova produced by the BBC Radio 3 in October; and this more or less chronological account was rounded in November by a two-day international symposium in Switzerland solely dedicated to our composer.


Performances

The most anticipated event of the year was the seven-day Kapralova Festival which was made possible thanks to Timothy Cheek and the faculty and students at the University of Michigan School of Music. The festival was the largest Kapralova event ever produced: all of Kapralova's music, save for a few orchestral works, was programmed at this event which also featured six world premieres: the composer's Sad Evening for Tenor/Soprano and Orchestra, stand-alone songs In the Bohemian Land and Song of the Workers of the Lord, two early songs from 1930-1932, and the miniatures Two Bouquets of Flowers for piano and Fanfare for My Dad's 50th Birthday for 2 horns, 2 trumpets and timpani. Other important concerts took place in Brno in February: these were made possible by the Brno Philharmonic which presented, to a capacity audience, five major orchestral works by Kapralova: Piano Concerto, Military Sinfonietta, Suita Rustica, Partita and Concertino. (The live performance was recorded by Czech Radio and will be released on CD by its label Radioservis in 2016.) Kapralova’s music was also programmed at a record number of festivals in 2015. Besides the aforementioned Kapralova Festival in Ann Arbor (September), her music was performed at the Specs On! International Feminist Art Music Festival in Berlin (April), Jagthuis Festival in Nederhorst den Berg, the Netherlands (May), SongFest in Los Angeles (June), PICfest Boys & Young Men's Choral Festival in Eugene, Oregon (July), Viktor Ullmann Festival in Trieste, Italy (November), and the Festival of Concert Melodrama in Prague (December). Furthermore, Kapralova’s songs were heard at the Canadian Music Competition (Toronto) and the 13th Czech and Slovak Voice International Competition (with semi-finals in Montreal and semi-finals and finals at the University of Wisconsin). The Kapralova Society participated in this biannual event by offering one of the competition prizes. The Kapralova Society Award is given to the best interpreter of a Kapralova art song. In 2015, it was awarded to American baritone Nicholas Davis, a recent alumnus of the University of Michigan School of Music, Dance & Theatre. Kapralova's music was also featured in two special projects: "Poets of the City", a multidisciplinary project of ProArt Company, which celebrated the life and work of Brno artists Ivan Blatny and Vitezslava Kapralova, and the touring exhibition "Czech Artists in France 1938-1945," curated by the National Gallery and presented in partnership with the Gallery of Visual Art in Cheb and the Moravian Gallery in Brno.


Broadcasts

There were 28 radio and 2 television broadcasts dedicated entirely or in part to Kapralova in 2015. The radio stations were located in Australia, Czech Republic, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom and the United States, and included four national broadcasters (BBC, Czech Radio, Deutschlandfunk and Sveriges Radio). While the Czech Radio produced a series of programs dedicated to Kapralova's music throughout the year, the most important, indeed seminal, radio documentary on Kapralova was produced by the Composer of the Week program of the BBC Radio 3, broadcast on October 12-16, 2015. Kapralova thus joined a distinguished roster of Czech composers who have been covered by this radio series over the years – and there have been just ten since 1943 when the program was first aired: Zelenka, Dussek, Vanhal, Smetana, Dvorak, Fibich, Novak, Suk, Janacek, Martinu – and now also Kapralova. The program was made possible thanks to availability of published research on Kapralova and the many recordings of Kapralova's music that were released over the years with the Society's assistance.


Publications, Theses, Conference Papers

On the occasion of the centenary, Kapralova Society made available on its website two previously unpublished scores by Kapralova: her chorus "Maticce" for children's voices, set to words by Jan Neruda; and the Fanfare for My Dad's 50th Birthday for two horns, two trumpets and timpani, discovered by Karla Hartl among Kapralova's correspondence. There were also two important books produced abroad on the occasion of Kapralova's 100th birth anniversary: Nicolas Derny's monograph Vitezslava Kapralova - portrait musical et amoureux, published in Paris by Jardin d'Essai, and Karla Hartl's Vitezslava Kapralova: Dopisy domu, published by the Kapralova Society in Toronto. Derny's French language monograph is the second book on Kapralova in foreign language (the first – in English – was published by Lexington Books in 2011) and represents an important contribution to promoting the composer's life and music. Hartl's annotated anthology of Kapralova's correspondence to her parents, published as a rare print destined for the research library market, makes available important material from several private archives. In the Czech Republic, a small anthology dedicated to Kapralova (editor Jarmila Mrackova) was published on the occasion of the composer's centenary by Spolek pratel hudby pri Filharmonii Brno. Mlada fronta published Svetovi Cesi, a children’s book with 28 bios of important historical figures in Czech industry, science and art. One of the chapters was dedicated to Kapralova. Kapralova was also the subject of a thesis in 2015. The thesis “Interpretacni pristup ke skladbam Bohuslava Martinu a Vitezslavy Kapralove” was written by Lucie Laubova as part of meeting her Master’s degree requirements at the Prague Academy of Music. Finally, the international symposium on Kapralova in Basel, Switzerland, organized by ForumMusikDiversitat (Forum for Diversity in Music) on November 27-28, produced a set of papers from Nicolas Derny (Belgium), Christine Fischer (Switzerland), Karla Hartl (Canada), Daniel Lienhard (Switzerland), Judith Mabary (United States), Olga Machonova-Pavlu (Switzerland), Alice Rajnohova (Czech Republic) and Thomas Svatos (United Arab Emirates).


Articles and Reviews

In 2015, the Society produced the thirteenth volume of its online journal of women in music - Kapralova Society Journal. The spring issue featured articles dedicated to Kapralova’s centenary and celebrating achievements of the Kapralova Society over the past seventeen years. The fall issue included an article by Judith Mabary on the reception of Kapralova's music in the United States and Kapralova's miniature score Fanfare for My Dad's 50th Birthday. Other articles, dedicated to Kapralova, were written by John Allison for The Telegraph, by Sarah Baer and Liane Curtis for wophil.org, by Vit Dvorak for OperaPlus, by Michael Haas for forbiddenmusic.org, by Karla Hartl for Harmonie, Czech Music Quarterly, Bohuslav Martinu Revue and VivaVoce; by Gabriela Kaegi for SRF, by Klara Kubickova for iDNES.cz, by Petr Lachmann for Lidove noviny, by Jiri Macek for Hudebni rozhledy, by Jarmila Mrackova for Kralovopolske listy and by Bohuslav Smejkal for Olomoucky denik. Previews and reviews of performances and broadcasts of Kapralova's music were published in Hospodarske noviny (Ivan Hartman), Brno mesto hudby and Zapisnik zmizeleho (Boris Klepal), Rozhlas.cz (Jan Hlavac, Ivan Holas and Karel Kratochvil), Brnensky denik (Martin Flasar), Hessische Allgemeine (Werner von Fritsch), Musicologica.cz (Petra Svandova) and Harmonie (Milos Zapletal). Karla Hartl’s anothology of Kapralova’s correspondence was reviewed in Opus musicum (Jaroslav Mihule), while Nicolas Derny's monograph on Kapralova received reviews in MusicaBohemica (Joseph Colomb), forumopera.com (Christophe Rizoud) and Opus musicum (Martin Flasar and Jolana Flasar). Kapralova Festival was a topic of a preview written by Stephanie Shenouda for School of Music, Theatre & Dance News and by Veroslav Nemec for Harmonie, whereas Kapralova symposium in Basel was promoted in bz nordwestschweiz Basel (Walter Labhart ) and Schweizer Musikzeitung (Daniel Lienhard).


Women in Music

The thirteenth volume of Kapralova Society Journal focused primarily on the centenary, publishing features, scores and analyses of Kapralova's music. In 2015, the journal received an important endorsement from ProQuest that praised the journal for its well-presented, thoroughly-documented and interestingly written material and highlighted its important role in promoting women in music over the years.

Thanks to worldwide volunteers, our databases of women composers and conductors and other online resources on women in music continue to attract visitors to our website. While the databases are frequently bookmarked by online discussion groups, many college libraries also link to our journal and the Woman Composer Question bibliography.


Acknowledgement:

We would like to thank the following artists who performed Kapralova's music in Argentina, Australia, Canada, Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and the United States: Arianne Abela, Amadeus Piano Quartet, Cole Anderson, Igor Ardasev, Aria Quartet, Andrew Bader, Thomas Bandy, Irene Bauer, Bay Area Rainbow Symphony, Andrej Benes, Eva Benesova, Susanne Berendes, Milan Bialas, Renata Bialasova, Leslie Bickle, Veronika Bilkova, Jerry Blackstone, Nada Blahova, Robert Blake, Marketa Bohmova, Garrett Bone, Martin Boucnik, Boychoir of Ann Arbor, Petra Brabcova, Brno Philharmonic, Karolina Brunova, Erika Buchholz, Sara Buechner, Luca Buratto, Chad Burrow, Mysti Byrnes, Augusta Caso, Trevor Chartrand, Timothy Cheek, Amy I-Lin Cheng, Caroline Coade, Lucie Czajkowska, Steven Damouni, Lukas Danhel, Nicolas Davis, Sage De-Agro-Ruopp, Kayleigh Decker, Kellen Degnan, Ladislav Dolezel, Martin Dvorak, John Elam, Virginia Eskin, Nicole Fan, Julia Farbstein, Stepan Filipek, Martin Fisl, Lucie Furstova, Stanislav Gallin, Wolfram Geiss, Andrew Gilliam, Stepan Graffe, Teresa Grijalva, Igor Gryshyn, Martha Guth, Petr Hala, Scott Hankins, Dawn Harms, Nathan Harris, Saya Hashino, Kimberly Haynes, Caroline Helton, Irena Herajnova, Katalin Hercegh, Melodi Hess, Luanne Homzy, Michal Hreno, Noniko Hsu, Tzu-Yin Huang, Hyae-Jin Hwang, Marketa Janackova, Roman Janal, Hanbyul Jang, Helena Jankovska, Klara Jelinkova, Marcela Jelinkova, Annie Jeng, Andrew Jennings, John Paul Jennings, Tomas Jerabek, Shenika John Jordan, Kapralova Quartet, Maxwell Karmazyn, Ema Katrovas, Martin Katz, Christopher Kayler, Amalia Keenan, Kenneth Kiesler, Nancy Ambrose King, Sarah Kirsch, Julia Knowles, Sam Koeppe, Pavel Kopcil, Zuzana Koprivova, Karel Kosarek, Giorgio Koukl, Michaela Kralova, Johana Krejci, Richard Kruzik, Jana Kubankova, Aneta Kubu, Augustin Kuzela, Isabel Kwon, Gabriel La Roca, Eunjung Lee, Chaazi Levicek, Jiri Levicek, Christine Harada Li, Emma Li, Ryan Li, Siyuan Li, Anna Licmanova, Gina Luciani, Jeffrey Lyman, Olga Machonova Pavlu, Monika Machovicova, Irene Maessen, Petr Malisek, Rose Mannino, Joshua Marzan, Zuzana Maskova, Kayla Mathes, Mark McNeill, Jaromir Meduna, Reinild Mees, Martina Mergentalova, Ingrid Israel Mikolajczyk, Michael Miller, Mariah Mlynarek, Alina Murcar, Muses Trio, Peter Myers, Kripa Nageshwar, Jin Nakamura, Christabel Nunoo, Chris O'Brien, Ondrej Olos, Orbis Piano Trio, Orchestra Abima, Marketa Ottova, Chelsey Padilla, Elena Panchenko, Kathleen Patrick, Jessica Paul, Sarah Pellington, Tomas Penas, Sandra Periord, Amy Petrongelli, Nicholas Phan, Wendy Prober, Alice Rajnohova, Marta Reichelova, Stephan Rieckhoff, Jan Robicek, Matej Rudolf, Magdalena Sackova, Blair Salter, Ann Sauter, Joachim Schwarz, Verena Schweize, Nicholas Shaneyfelt, Stephen Shipps, George Shirley, Nathan Shiu, Terree Shofner-Emrich, William Shookhoff, Natalia Silipo, Hana Skarkova, Katerina Skarova, Katherine Skayhan, Luis Slaby, Kira Slovacek, Terezie Smahelova, Emily Smokovich, Lucas Song, Janel Speelman, Spohr-Ensemble Kassel, Jakub Stetina, Christine Stinchi, Thomas Strode, Simona Suchanova, Nick Susi, Pavla Svestkova, Sonya Szabo-Reynolds, Jana Tajovska Krajcovicova, Azariah Tan, Taya Tarasevich, Volker Timmermann, Olena Tokar, Kylie Toomer, Julie Ulvrova, University Symphony Orchestra (Michigan), Kristina Vaculova, Kamila Valuskova, Marta Vaskova, Rozalie Vesela, Emily Volz, Pavel Wallinger, Jecoliah Wang, David Wilson, Women of the Chamber Choir (U of Michigan), Morgan Wynne, Evan Zegiel, Robert Zimansky, Kristina Znamenackova.

We also wish to thank our partners and friends, as well as all the others who promoted Kapralova and/or assisted our efforts in promoting women in music in 2015: John Allison, Archiv Frau und Musik, Sarah Baer, Petr Bakla, Jana Balacova, Jindra Bartova, BBC 3, BBC World Service (Newsday), Klara Berankova, Bern Conservatory, Ales Brezina, Brnensky denik, Brno Conservatory, Brno mesto hudby.cz, Canadian Music Competition, Alessandro Carrieri, Jiri Cerny, Cesky spolek pro komorni hudbu, Joseph Colomb, Consul General of the Czech Republic in Los Angeles, Liane Curtis, Czech Music Quarterly, Czech Post, Czech Radio 3 (Vltava), Czech Radio (Brno), Czech Television (Art Channel), Czechoslovak Society for Arts and Sciences, Databazeknih.cz, Nicolas Derny, Deutschlandfunk, Sophie Drinker Institute, Peter Duffy, Vit Dvorak, Eastman School of Music, Federation of Recorded Music Societies, Paul Feeny, The Fibich Society, Uta Christine Fischer, Jiri Fixl, Martin Flasar, Jolana Flasarova, ForbiddenMusic.org, ForumMusik Diversitat, ForumOpera.com, Werner von Fritsch, Galerie Otakara Kubina, Galerie vytvarneho umeni v Chebu, Eugene Gates, Barry Gorman, Thomas Goss, Ellen Grolman, Michael Haas, HAMU, Harmonie, Ivan Hartman, Peter Herbert, Hessische Allgemeine, Jan Hlavac, Ivan Holas, Horacka galerie v Novem Meste na Morave, Hospodarske noviny, Anna Marie Hradecka, Hudebni rozhledy, Lukas Hytha, IAWM Journal, iDNES.cz, Jagthuis Festival, Jana Juzlova, Boris Klepal, Assaf Klieger, Klub moravskych skladatelu, Klub pratel hudby pri Brnenske filharmonii, Johanna Kohler, Komponistinnen und ihr Werk 2015, Pavel Korelus, Kralovopolske listy, Karel Kratochvil, Krumlov Autumn Recitals, Klara Kubickova, Marie Kucerova, Walter Labhart, Petr Lachmann, Lucie Laubova, Nicola LeFanu, Lepton Studio, Lidove noviny, Daniel Lienhard, Luther College Iowa, Judith Mabary, Jiri Macek, Donald Macleod, Odaline de la Martinez, The Bohuslav Martinu Foundation, The Bohuslav Martinu Institute, Bohuslav Martinu Revue, Bohuslav Martinu Society (Brno), Eve Meyer, Jaroslav Mihule, Ministerstvo prumyslu a obchodu Ceske republiky, Mlada fronta, Moravska galerie v Brne, Jarmila Mrackova, Museo Fernandez Blanco, MusicaBohemica.be, Musicologica.cz, Gene Nakajima, Narodni galerie, Veroslav Nemec, Robert Nemecek, Christel Nies, Oberlin College Conservatory of Music, Olomoucky denik, Milos Ondracek, OperaPlus, Opus musicum, Christiane Peterlein, PICfest Boys & Young Men's Choral Festival, Prague Conservatory, ProArt Dance Company, Queensland Conservatory, Radio 4MBS Classic FM, Radio Proglas, Radio SRF 2 Kultur, Maria Norriega Rachwal, Marina Richterova, Christophe Rizoud, Emil Roijer, Rotary Club of Keene, Rozhlas.cz, School of Music, Theatre & Dance News (University of Michigan), Scripps College, Paul Seeley, Zoja Seyckova, Stephanie Shenouda, Jana Slimackova, Adrian Slywotzky, Bohuslav Smejkal, Johannah Smith, SongFest, Specs On!, Stirling Recorded Music Society, Petr Stodulka, Vladimir Strakos, Sudwestrundfunk Radio, Vera Sustikova, Petra Svandova, Thomas Svatos, Sverigesradio, The Telegraph, Viktor Ullmann Festival, University of Cambridge, University of Michigan School of Music, University of Southern California, VivaVoce, Washington State University School of Music, WFCF 88.5 FM, WFWM 91.9 FM, Women's Philharmonic Advocacy Blog, ZapisnikZmizeleho.cz, Milos Zapletal, Katerina Zavadilova, Ziering-Conlon Initiative for Recovered Voices, ZUS Telc, ZUS Vitezslavy Kapralove.


Prepared by Karla Hartl, Chair, The Kapralova Society. Toronto, December 31, 2015.