It All Began With Prince Rupert

Vážení přátelé, domnívali jsme se (a také to říkali a psali), že k  třetímu  vydání knihy It All Began With Prince Rupert by mělo dojít na jaře. Nyní už je jisté, že všechno je značně zpožděno vzhledem k onemocnění autora i jedné jeho spolupracovnice. Teď se zdá, že práce na shromažďování a zpracovávání materiálu skončí koncem června nebo začátkem července a kniha by měla vyjít v září. Tím se také   prodlužuje čas na objednání knížky do konce června. Děkujeme za strpení (tohle kezké slovo se najednou docela nečekaně odněkud na mne  vykutálelo). Pokud máte zájem napište do redakce nebo pošlete objednávku přímo na autorovu e-mail: jqc@rogers.com. Dnes přinášíme životopisy Josefa Svobody a jeho syna Andrew Yin Svobody.

Josef Svoboda (*1929 Praha) had his academic career delayed for two decades.  In 1949, as a university student he was arrested as a member of an underground group of 8 students in his native Czechoslovakia and sentenced to 11 years for treason and espionage. After almost 9 years of incarceration, of which 4 years he spent in the uranium mines at Jachymov, Svoboda was let go in 1958.  Still under totality, with no chance to continue his studies, he worked as technician for another 10 years. In 1968, during the renowned Prague Spring, as already 40 years old, he immigrated to Canada. He completed his B.Sc. at Western U. in London, ON (1970), and his PhD at the U. of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, (1974).  In 1973 he was offered a teaching position at the University of Toronto. He specialized in Arctic ecology and during his academic tenure he supervised many postgraduate students and retired as a full Professor in 1994. Twenty years later, he is still active in his field as Emeritus Professor.

Evidently, most of Svoboda’s professional achievements have been accomplished past his age of 45.  Since 1970 he conducted research and later organized expeditions to the Canadian Polar Regions. Here, he and his students studied the tundra vegetation developed in the deglaciated terrain after the last Ice age 10,000 year ago. At Ellesmere Island (80°N), he established and directed world’s most northern Agricultural Research Station, The Green Igloos Farms. He became the founding member of the International Tundra Experiment program (ITEX) to monitor global change in the circumpolar regions.

Svoboda is the recipient of the NATO Senior Fellowship (1980). He is a subject of an article The Triumphs of an Arctic Plant Ecologist (In: Canadians Who Made a Difference. Queen’s Quarterly, 1991, vol. 98, p80-98). He was elected a Fellow of the Arctic Institute of North America (1993), received the Northern Science Award and Centennial Medal (Government of Canada, 1994), New Pioneer Award for Science and Technology (Ontario Skill for Change, Toronto), Honorary doctorate and Gold Medal from Masaryk University (1995). In 2011 he was elected a Fellow of the Learned Society of the Czech Academy of Sciences. In 2015, the Czech polar research group at the University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice named their Research facility and field Station in Svalbard, Norway, after him.

Svoboda published many research papers and is a co-author of books: Living Explorers of the Canadian Arctic (1986), Arctic Ecosystem in a Changing Climate. An Ecophysiological Perspective (1992), Ecology of Polar Oasis, Alexandra Fiord, Ellesmere Island, NWT, Canada (1994), Rozhovory od Bakerova jezera (Conversations at Baker Lake. Atelier IM, CZ, 2002), and of autobiography Tři Inkarnace (Three Incarnations, Radioservis, Praha, 2011). He is married to Lewina. They have two sons: Michael, with the Canadian Wildlife Service, Yukon Territory, Canada, and Andrew, Music composer who died due to natural causes at the age of 27.

Andrew Yin Svoboda, Music Composer. Born in Burlington, Canada (1977) to Chinese mother and Czech father. At 18 he wrote his first musical Earth Angels. At McGill University, Montreal, he composed the music for May Cutler’s play Ah Pootee, That’s Snow, produced in Montreal (1998) and New York (2000).  As a Composer-in-Residence at McGill he wrote Maran Atha for small ensemble and choir, premiered by the McGill 100-voice chorus in 2000 and in Ottawa (2002).  In 2002 his Rhapsody was premiered by the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra (2nd prize in the HPO Young Composers’ Competition). Andrew’s one-act opera Martin Streda (inspired by his father’s experience in the Czechoslovak gulag for political prisoners in the 1950’s) was completed in 2003 and premiered in New York (2005). It was peformed in Kroměříž (2007), Rotterdam (2010) and Prague (2015). A CD with his piano and cello pieces was published (2012), as was a DVD featuring the monodrama Martin Streda (2016), both by Radioservis Praha.

In 2002 Andrew was commissioned by Radio France to compose a work for their Alla Breve series. He took a leave from McGill and at L’École Normale Supérieure de Musique de Paris (Professor Michel Merlet) he composed Elevation, for full orchestra. Radio France Philharmonic Orchestra broadcast the piece in 2003 and 2004. In 2007, Kent Nagano with the Montreal Symphonic Orchestra introduced the work to the Quebec audience.  In 2014 the Symphonic Orchestra of the City of Prague (FOK) premiered Andrew’s Elevation in the city’s prestigious Smetana Hall. In Paris Andrew also completed Le Caveau des Oubliettes (for the Quatunord Quartet of Dunkerque), performed and recorded in Paris (2003), and a sextet Variations bréves sur Fais dodo, Colas mon p’tit frère (2004).

Andrew earned two postgraduate degrees in music composition (2000 and 2004) from McGill University. In Paris (2003), he received a Diplôme Supérieur de Composition and for his Elevation the First Prize (Prix de l’Unanimité), as well as Le Prix de la SACEM (French Society for authors and composers). 

In the fall of 2004, Andrew began doctoral studies at Columbia University, N.Y. Sadly, on December 29, 2004 the music world lost a promising composer, as the 27 year old Andrew Yin Svoboda died unexpectedly on a sudden heart arrest. His final piece Trans-it for piano and cello remains unfinished. He left a legacy of more than 70 music titles. His entire musical work is listed and the scores deposited in the Canadian Music Centre (CMC), Montreal, and in Hudební oddělení národní knihovny (The Music Section of the National Library), Clementinum, Prague. In his memory, McGill University established the ‘Andrew Svoboda Prize for Orchestral Composition’, awarded annually to the best student in advanced Music Composition. He continues to be a member of the Canadian Society of Authors and Composers (SOCAN).

Josef Čermák /Material dodal Josef Svoboda

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