Kaprálová, Vítězslava

Vítězslava Kaprálová (1915 - 1940) was a Czech composer and conductor of the first half of the 20th century. She came from a musical family; her father, Václav Kaprál, was a composer and her mother, Vítězslava Kaprálová, née Uhlířová, was a singing teacher. From childhood she showed exceptional musical talent. She studied composition with Vilém Petrželka at the Brno Conservatory and conducting with Zdeněk Chalabala. After graduating, she continued her studies at the Prague Conservatoire's master school under Vítězslav Novák and Václav Talich. Thanks to a French state scholarship, she went to Paris in 1937, where she studied conducting with Charles Munch and composition privately with Bohuslav Martinů. Despite the short time allotted to Kaprálová (she died at the age of 25 of tuberculosis), she managed to compose some forty extremely valuable compositions (piano, chamber, orchestral, vocal) and her music was already highly appreciated during her lifetime. In 1946 the Czech Academy of Sciences awarded her membership in memoriam in recognition of her contribution to Czech music.