The rich tradition of Czech music-making, famous for its incisive rhythms and the legacy of folk music, has become synonymous with Smetana, Dvořák, Janáček and Martinů. However, that list appears painfully thin as closer inspection reveals the brilliant women in their immediate circles not even to speak of the greater Czech society. If we take Smetana as a short example: his first wife, Kateřina Kolářová, was an accomplished pianist and recently-discovered composer, his early piano teacher, Marie Proksch, also a composer and celebrated pianist gaining the approval of Liszt. The writer of his librettos, Eliška Krásnohorská, not only just a composer but also the founder of the first higher-education for women in the Austro-Hungarian empire. Join Dr. Katelyn Bouska as she shares discoveries from her upcoming book, “The Women of Czech Music” and leads us in an evening celebrating the true fullness of the rich legacy of Czech music.

About Dr. Katelyn Bouska:

Pianist Katelyn Bouska is an academic and an advocate, passionate about uncovering music lost to the passage of time. In her programming, she explores the boundaries between audience and performer, the past and the present. Her critically-acclaimed 2023 solo album with Yarlung Records, Woman and War and Peace, described in music six women composers' response to war and its after effects. November 2024 saw the release of the companion album on the same label, “Hildegard and Her Sisters” featuring commissions by young female composers and her own improvisations on the music of medieval composer Hildegard von Bingen. In summer of 2024, Katelyn left her long-time Music Studies Faculty position at the Curtis Institute of Music for a sabbatical year in Prague to complete her book, “Czech Women in Music.”