Sung into the Distance: The Songs of Vítězslava Kaprálová and Bohuslav Martinů

The story is a romantic one: Two Czech composers in Paris at the beginning of World War II, one an older married man, the other a doomed ingénue. Their relationship was both artistic and intensely personal and, precisely because of its potentially scandalous nature, often misrepresented and misunderstood.

In October 2017, soprano Ema Katrovas will premiere a performance of the songs and the stories of these two composers at University of Wisconsin - River Falls and her Alma Mater, Western Michigan University. Accompanying the recital will be pianist Dr. Timothy Cheek, a champion of the work of Kaprálová and one of her foremost interpreters. Karla Hartl, leading expert on the work of Kaprálová and founder of the Kaprálová Society, is a consultant for the talks between musical numbers. The recital falls under the activities of Opera studio Praha.

The project´s premiere in the Fall of 2017 is just the beginning. As a Czech-American singer, Ema is passionate about sharing Czech music and Czech stories with American and Czech audiences alike. She is collaborating on the Czech version of the recital with writer and translator Viktorie Hradská and wishes to present Kaprálová´s and Martinů´s stories to their homeland, too. In 2018, she plans to tour the US with an expanded version of the recital. To make it happen, she needs your help! If you wish to support a project that deals with 20th century art-song, recent European history, Czech culture, and what it takes to survive as a (female) artist please consider helping Opera studio Praha bring this project to you!

Check the updates for news about concrete locations and dates! If you cannot make it to a recital, consider donating to obtain a CD of Kaprálová´s and Martinů´s songs which Ema will record with pianist Andrea Vavrušová-Mottlová this September at the Ostrava Radio.

To learn more about Ema Katrovas, click here.