Husa, K :: 8 Bohemian Sketches

Karel Husa's '8 Bohemian Sketches' for flute, clarinet, and piano is an advanced trio composed in 1958 and revised in 2003.

The Czech-born American composer and conductor, Karel Jaroslav Husa, learned to play the violin and the piano in early childhood and, after passing his final examination at high school, he enrolled in the Prague Conservatory in 1941 where he studied in a class of Jaroslav Ridky, and attended courses in conducting led by Metod Dolezil and Pavel Dedecek. After the end of World War II, Husa was admitted to the graduate school of the Prague Academy, where he attended courses led by Ridky and graduated in 1947. At the same time, he decided to continue his studies of composition and conducting in Paris. In 1947 he studied with Arthur Honegger and Nadia Boulanger. He studied conducting with Jean Fournet, Eugene Bigot and Andre Cluytens. After finishing his courses in conducting at Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris and at Conservatoire de Paris, Karel Husa embarked on a career during which he conducted the world's leading orchestras and participated in many major projects. He divided his time between composing and conducting, taking an ever more active part in Parisian and international musical life. In 1954 Karel Husa came to the USA and became an American citizen in 1959. In 1954, he was appointed to the faculty of Cornell University where he was Kappa Alpha Professor until his retirement in 1992. He was also lecturer at Ithaca College from 1967 to 1986.