Karel Hoffmann

Karel Hoffmann ( born December 12, 1872 in Prague, † March 30, 1936 ibid ) was a Czech violinist and music teacher.

The youngest son of a weaver grew up in Prague's Smíchov, where he attended elementary school and contributed as a violinist in a band to the earnings of the family. In 1885 he was admitted to the Prague Conservatory, where he was a pupil of Antonín Bennewitz violin and entered the class of chamber music by Hanus Wihan.

In 1890 he became concertmaster of the orchestra of the Conservatory and entered 1891 with his classmates Josef Suk (violin), Oskar Nedbal (viola ) and Otto Berger ( cello ) and string quartet at a concert in the Rudolfinum, which officially in 1892 as the Bohemian Quartet ( from 1918 Czech Quartet ) was established and one of the most important Czech chamber music ensembles of its time was.

Since 1898, Hoffmann also pursued a career as a violin soloist. He triumphed in Prague, Amsterdam, The Hague and Utrecht with Antonín Dvořák's Violin Concerto in A minor, leading violin concertos and sonatas of Johann Sebastian Bach, Ludwig van Beethoven, Johannes Brahms, Cesar Franck, Claude Debussy, Josef Suk and the other on.

Since 1922, Hoffmann was professor of violin at the Prague Conservatory, which he led in 1926-27 as rector. In 1934 he founded with Ladislav Zelenka and Jan Heřman the Ceske trio, which consisted of only two years in this occupation due to his early death.