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Biography
Karel Husa (born August 7, 1921 in Prague ) is a Czech people|Czech -born classical composer and conductor, winner of the 1969 Pulitzer Prize and 1993 University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award in Music Composition. In 1954 he came to the United States and became an American citizen in 1959.
Overview
Husa learned to play the violin and the piano in early childhood and, after passing his final examination at high school, he enrolled in the Prague Conservatory in 1941 where he studied in a class of Jaroslav Rídký , and attended courses in conducting led by Metod Doležil and Pavel Dedecek .
After the end of the Second World War, Husa was admitted to the graduate school of the Prague Academy, where he attended courses led by Jaroslav Rídký|Rídký and graduated in 1947. At the same time, he decided to continue his studies of composition and conducting in Paris. In 1947 he studied with Arthur Honegger and Nadia Boulanger . He studied conducting with Jean Fournet , Eugčne Bigot and André Cluytens . After finishing his courses in conducting at École Normale de Musique de Paris and at Conservatoire de Paris he embarked on a career during which he has conducted the world's leading orchestras and participated in many major projects. He divided his time between composing and conducting, taking an ever more active part in Parisian and international musical life.
His First String Quartet marked a big step on the composer's path to the realm of international music: the Quartet received the 1950 Lili Boulanger Award and the 1951 award at the music festival in Bilthoven in the Netherlands. It has since also been performed on many other occasions, e.g., at the festival of the International Society for Contemporary Music in Brussels (1950), festivals in Salzburg (1950), Darmstadt (1951), and the Netherlands (1952) as well as at various concerts in Germany, France, Sweden, England, Switzerland, Australia and the United States. Other compositions written by Karel Husa during his stay in Paris include Divertimento for String Orchestra, Concertino for Piano and Orchestra, Évocations de Slovaquie , ''Musique d'amateurs , Portrait for String Orchestra, First Symphony , First Sonata for Piano, and Second String Quartet''. Throughout this period, the composer's underlying preoccupation and interest was style, which was primarily influenced by Vítezslav Novák , Janácek , Bartók and Stravinsky .
He is probably best known for his Music for Prague 1968 , a work in memory of the 1968 Soviet bloc invasion of Czechoslovakia . His String Quartet No. 3 won the Pulitzer Prize in 1969. Husa is the 1993 recipient of the Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition presented by the University of Louisville for his Concerto for Cello and Orchestra . From 1954 until 1992 he was a professor at Cornell University and lecturer at Ithaca College from 1967 to 1986. Husa now resides in Apex, North Carolina .
He is a National Patron of Delta Omicron , an international professional music fraternity. http://delta-omicron.org/index00.html Delta Omicron
The University of Massachusetts Amherst held a Wind Ensemble at the Fine Arts Center Concert Hall celebrating Karel Husa's 90th birthday on October 21, 2011. http://www.umass.edu/umhome/events/articles/132957.php
Compositions
Ballet
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1974
1976
1980
Orchestra
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1944
1944
1946–1947
1948
1952
1953
1953
1955
1956–1957
1960
1963
1968
1971
1979
1980
1983
1984
1986
1990
1996
1997
Band
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1958
1968
original version for concert band; also for orchestra
1970
original version for concert band; also for chorus and orchestra (1972)
1973
1974 1995
1980
1980
1982
1984
1996
1996
2006
Concertante
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1949
1959
1967
1961
1965
1971
1971
1973
1987
1987
1988
1992
Chamber
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1943
1945
1945
1948
1951
1953
1963
1966
1968
1968
1976
1977
1978
1979
1981
1982
1984
1984
1990
1991
1992
1994
1997
2003
2008
Keyboard
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1943
1952
1955
1957
1975
1986
Vocal
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1956
1955 1964
1972
1976
for baritone and mixed chorus a cappella; text from An American Te Deum by Henry David Thoreau
1976
for baritone, chorus and wind ensemble; for baritone, chorus and orchestra (1977); text compiled by the composer from the writings of Henry David Thoreau , Ole Edvart Rřlvaag , Otokar Brezina , folk, traditional and liturgical sources
1981
1981
1982
2000
References
Reflist
External links
http://www.bruceduffie.com/husa.html Karel Husa interview by Bruce Duffie
http://www.schirmer.com/default.aspx? TabId=2419& State_2872=2& ComposerId_2872=749 Karel Husa at G. Schirmer
http://www.musica.cz/comp/husa.htm Karel Husa at Czech Music Information Centre
http://www.sigmaalphaiota.org/home/ComposersBureau/HusaKarel/tabid/334/Default.aspx Karel Husa at SigmaAlpha Iota
GrawemeyerAwardMusicCompositionPulitzerPrize MusicComposers 1951–1975 Persondata | NAME = Husa, Karel | ALTERNATIVE NAMES = | SHORT DESCRIPTION = | DATE OF BIRTH = August 7, 1921 | PLACE OF BIRTH = | DATE OF DEATH = | PLACE OF DEATH = DEFAULTSORT:Husa, Karel Category:1921 births Category:Living people Category:20th-century classical composers Category:21st-century classical composers Category:Grawemeyer Award winners Category:Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters Category:Pulitzer Prize for Music winners Category:Czech composers Category:American composers Category:Czech expatriates Category:People from Prague Category:Recipients of Medal of Merit (Czech Republic)?
