Tomislav Volek
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Tomislav Volek | |
|---|---|
| Born | October 11, 1931 Prague |
| Occupation | Musicologist |
| Education | PhD, Assoc. Prof. University of Prague |
| Subject | Music, Mozart |
Tomislav Volek, is a Czech musicologist who is best known for his research on the music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
Tomislav Volek (born 11 October 1931 in Prague) is a Czech musicologist specializing in the study of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and the musical culture of eighteenth-century Bohemia.
He studied musicology and history at Charles University in Prague from 1950 to 1955. [1] He subsequently worked as an assistant at the Department of Musicology of the Faculty of Arts (1955–1964) and later as a researcher at the Institute of Musicology of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences (1965–1976). [1]
During the period of political “normalization” in Czechoslovakia, Volek opposed prevailing ideological constraints in musicological research. [1] After refusing to retract his views expressed in a 1971 article on music and politics, he was dismissed from the Academy of Sciences in 1976 and worked as an independent scholar until 1990.[1]
After the political changes of 1989, he resumed systematic research and academic activity. [1] He returned to teaching at Charles University as an external lecturer, offering courses on eighteenth-century Italian opera, musical classicism, and the interpretation of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century music. [1] In 1998 he completed his habilitation with a study on the history of Italian opera in the Bohemian lands. [1]
Volek's research focuses particularly on Mozart's operas associated with Prague, especially "Don Giovanni" and "La clemenza di Tito". In 1991, the Mozart anniversary year, he organized an international conference in Prague and participated in further international scholarly meetings. [1]
Since 1989 he has served as president of the Mozart Society in the Czech Republic. [1] In this role he was involved in a long-standing legal effort to secure the restitution of the Villa Bertramka in Prague, historically associated with Mozart, which was returned to the Society in 2009. [1]
For his contributions to Mozart research, Volek has received several distinctions, including the Silver Medal of the International Mozarteum Foundation (1992), honorary membership of the Mozart Society of America (2009), and honorary membership of the Akademie für Mozart-Forschung at the Mozarteum Salzburg (2017). [2]
