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František Vajnar

Czech conductor and violinist. Born 15 September 1930 in Strašice (former Czechoslovakia), died 9 December 2012, Prague. In 1945-52 he studied violin with Karel Šneberger at the Prague Conservatory. From 1948 he was a pupil of Alois Klíma in the conducting department of the Conservatory (he graduated in 1952). While still a student, he worked as a violinist: he was a member of the orchestra of the National Theatre in Prague (1951-53), after which he concentrated on conducting. In 1953-55 he was conductor of the Army Opera in Prague, 1955-60 conductor of the Musical Theatre in Karlín, 1960-62 conductor of the State Theatre in Ostrava. From 1962 to 1974 he was the head of the opera at the Theatre in Ústí nad Labem, and from 1974 to 1980 he was the conductor of the opera of the National Theatre in Prague. In 1979 he took over the position of chief conductor of the Czechoslovak Radio Symphony Orchestra in Prague from Jaroslav Krombholc (until 1985). At the same time, he was chief conductor of the Chamber and Symphony Orchestra in Örebro, Sweden, in 1980-82, and conductor of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra in 1982-84. After finishing his work in the radio ensemble, he was the head of the opera in 1985-87 and the conductor of the National Theatre Opera in Prague in 1987-90. From 1991 to 1993 he was chief conductor at the Prague State Opera, and from 1991 to 2001 he was chief conductor of the Hradec Králové Philharmonic Orchestra. At the same time, he taught at the Prague Conservatory in 1974-75, and from 1975 at the Academy of Performing Arts (in 1997 he was appointed professor of conducting). Important pupils: Vojtěch Spurný, Jiří Štrunc, Stanislav Vavřínek, Norbert Baxa, Jiří Malát, Tomáš Netopil, Marek Štryncl and others. In 1990 he led master classes at The Queen's University of Belfast in Northern Ireland; From 1995 to 2003 he led conducting courses for foreign conductors in Hradec Králové together with Otakar Trhlík. Vajnar was a member and chairman of professional juries of competitions (he was a member of the Prague Spring Conducting Competition – 1985, 1995 and 2007, chairman – 2000), he was also a member of the jury of the Arturo Toscanini Competition in Parma, Italy – 1987, a member of the jury of the Wiener Internationaler Musik Wettbewerb in Vienna – 1992, a member and twice chairman of the jury of the Antonín Dvořák International Singing Competition in Karlovy Vary – 1997–2000. František Vajnar has made more than a hundred gramophone recordings for the Supraphon, Panton, EMI, Bluebell OF Schweden labels, etc. (including Bedřich Smetana's The Kiss, Antonín Dvořák's Šelna sedlák, Vitězslav Novák's The Lantern, Josef Bohuslav Foerster's Eva, Jiří Pauer's Zuzana Vojířová, Ivo Jiráska's The Bear and others, as well as symphonic compositions by Emil Hlobil, Eugen Suhoň, Jan Hanuš, Bohuslav Martinů, Vítězslav Novák, Otmar Kvech, Josef Matěj, Zdeněk Šesták, Dmitri Shostakovich, etc. In 1980 Vajnar was awarded the title of Meritorious Artist; in Rio de Janeiro, where he won a quarter prize and the title of laureate of the conducting competition, his artistic work was awarded the Villa-Lobose Medal in 1974. Vajnar he also received a Supraphon Gold Disc (1978), the Cultural Award of the City of Hradec Králové (1994), etc. Throughout his artistic career, Vajnar divided his own interest between opera practice and conducting symphonic and chamber ensembles. He has conducted in almost all European countries, in the USA, South America, Japan, Canada, Australia, Singapore. He has conducted concerts of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, the Czechoslovak Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Prague Chamber Orchestra several times, as well as performances of the National Theatre Opera as part of the Prague Spring Festival. An important part of Vajnar's artistic work was his work with the ensemble Collegium musicum Pragense, of which he was the artistic director from 1968 until 1993, when the ensemble closed its activities. Important productions of operas: Smetana's The Bartered Bride at the Sydney Opera (1981, the first ever performance of the work in Australia), where and in Melbourne he also conducted Dvořák's opera Rusalka (1994). In 1989, Vajnar performed Prokofiev's opera Betrothal in a Monastery in Wexford, Ireland; his extraordinarily broad operatic repertoire also included works by Giuseppe Verdi, Giaccomo Puccini, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Richard Wagner, Gioacchino Rossini, George Bizet, Ludwig van Beethoven, Richard Strauss, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Jules Massenet, Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky, Carl Maria von Weber, Karl Amadeus Hartmann (Simplicius Simplicissimus), Benjamin Britten, Maurice Ravel, Hans Werner Henze ( The Country Doctor), Ruggiero Leoncavallo and many other composers, and from the Czech repertoire Vajnar performed the entire operatic works of Bedřich Smetana, Antonín Dvořák, Josef Bohuslav Foerster, Leoš Janáček, as well as operas by Bohuslav Martinů, Eugen Suchoň, Ivo Jirásek, Josef Boháč, Jiří Pauer, Jan Frank Fischer and others.