Gracious Czech Friends

On Wednesday, I led a practicum for students at Palacky University, concentrating on graphic notation and methods of improvisation. Refreshments were later shared with my energetic and thoughtful hosts---the composer Vit Zouhar, musicologist Gabriela Coufalova, and conductor Jaromir Synek (known as Mirek). They told me that a tank had been housed in the very restaurant (connected to the university) as late as the early 90's. The history of this region is endlessly complex, convoluted, and often tragic. There is a fascinating film festival taking place this week, the Academia Film Olomouc, focusing on documentary and scientific films. The one I saw tonight, “Forgotten Transports to Byelorussia,” packed with an attentive student audience, was a collection of testimonies and footage from survivors of obscure concentration camps in Latvia, Byelorussia, Estonia and Eastern Poland. There are a number of films on this theme throughout the festival.

Palacky University in Olomouc

Tuesday was filled with lectures---on music and surrealism at Janacek Academy, for the student composers, and, after being driven to Palacky University, the same lecture there, for the musicology students. Swerving from Boulez’s Structures 1a to the Rev. Fred Lane in his rendition of The Man with the Fold-Back Ears, part of my surrealism lecture, I followed up with a third lecture, on my music, for the music education students. Palacky University, located in Olomouc and more than 400 years old, is the second oldest university in the Czech Republic. The Music Education Department, part of the Arts Centre of Palacky University, is housed in a huge, strikingly beautiful Baroque building, along with other arts disciplines. A former Jesuit monastery, it was renovated about five years ago with great attention to detail. The photo was taken in one of the long winding hallways.