Prague Conservatory

The Prague Conservatory ( tschech.: Pražská Konzervatoř ) is a Czech secondary education facility in Prague for Music and Performing Arts.

Training

The Prague Conservatory offers training in play several musical instruments, including accordion, guitar, piano and organ, as well as in singing, composition, conducting and acting. The training duration is 6 years. The curriculum includes specialized theoretical studies, language training and general education. The institution has its own symphony and chamber orchestras, various chamber music ensembles and a troupe of actors. About 250 concerts and 40 theater performances are held every year.

2005/ 06 studied about 550 Czech and 40 foreign students at the Conservatory.

History

The Prague Conservatory was founded in 1808 by local aristocrats and citizens. The first courses started in 1811 after the Napoleonic Wars had caused a delay. Friedrich Dionys Weber was appointed the first director of the school.

Antonín Dvořák in 1891 became Head of the Department of Composition in the faculty. From 1901 to 1904 he was director of the school. To Dvořák's students included the composers Vítězslav Novák, Josef Suk (who later became director of the Conservatory ), Rudolf Friml, Oscar Nedbal and Franz Lehár. Among the professors who taught at the school, the pianist and later director of the conservatoire was Vilém Kurz.

The list of musicians who have studied at the school, including, inter alia, January Hrimaly, Otakar Ševčík Jan Kubelik, Václav Talich, Karel Ančerl, Rafael Kubelik, Vítězslav Novák, Eugen Suchoň, Bohuslav Martinů ( prematurely exiting) Jaroslav Jezek, Václav Neumann, Jiri Belohlavek, Franz Simandl, Václav Smetáček and many others.

After the founding of Czechoslovakia in 1918, the departments were built for drama and ballet. Among other things, studied here Lída Baarová ( prematurely exiting) Jiří Langmajer, Tatiana Vilhelmová ( leaked prematurely ), Filip Blazek and Zuzana Vejvodová. Katya Zvelebilova began her classical ballet training at the Conservatory before they joined the Royal Ballet School in London, where they are now after her withdrawal from the professional ballet is a member of the artistic staff.