Karel Husa

Karel Husa was born on 7th August 1921 in Prague. The Nazi occupation changed his life for good. The students´ protest in 1939 gave the Germans a pretext to close down all universities in Prague including the technological department where Husa had just started studying. Most students were sent to Dresden to work in ammunition factories. Conservatories and art schools were allowed to continue in their education and so Husa escaped deportation in 1941 by being accepted to a composition class of Jaroslav Řídký and conducting at Pavel Dědeček at the Prague Conservatory.

After the war, Karel Husa obtained a scholarship from the French government and went to Paris to study at the Ecole Normale de Musique and later Conservatoire de Paris. He studied composition at Arthur Honneger, Nadia Boulanger, conducting at Jean Fournet and André Cluytens and later at Eugene Bigot at a conservatory.

In June 1950 he had to face recurring health problems and therefore had to give up an offer to work as Kussevitsky’s assistant and teach conducting in Tanglewood. At that time he also met his future wife Simone. In 1954 he was invited to the USA again, this time the invitation came form an American musicologist, Donald J. Grout, and Karel Husa accepted the offer to teach music theory at the Cornell University with the obligation to conduct the university orchestra.

Husa’s music pieces in the 40s were influenced by folk music, at the end of the 50s he extended his music language by atonality; he experimented with other means and occupied himself with series. In 1969 he received a Pulitzer’s award for his violin quarter No. 3, which confirmed that he was aiming at the composer elite. Karel Husa is a straightforward individual with firm beliefs.

One of the important moments is his philanthropic attitude characterized also by the committed trilogy: Music for Prague (1968), Apotheosis of this country (1972) and Trojan woman (1980). Apart from many other awards, Karel Husa is also a holder of the state award For 1st Degree Merits, which he was awarded by the president, Václav Havel, in 1995.

Titles for sale:
Overture "Academy"
Sinfonietta
String Quartet "0"

Titles for hire - see Complete catalogue