The talk will present the remarkable Czech composer, phenomenal pianist and elemental musician Jaroslav Jezek (1906-1942) and his last years in New York where he lived in exile after fleeing the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1939. Professor Michael Beckerman will discuss Jezek's final composition, the Piano Sonata, which he completed shortly before his death in 1942 in New York. In the USA, Jaroslav Jezek performed for Czech Americans and expatriates with Jiri Voskovec and Jan Werich, his fellow exiles and protagonists of the popular Prague's political antifascist revue troupe, the Liberated Theater. Dr. Beckerman has been a frequent contributor to The New York Times and was a regular guest on Live from Lincoln Center and other radio and television programs in the United States, Europe, and Japan. He has written many studies and several books on Czech music topics, including New Worlds of Dvorak (W.W. Norton, 2003), Dvorak and His World (1993), Janacek and His World (2004), Janacek as Theorist (1994), and Martinu's Mysterious Accident (2007), as well as articles on subjects such as Mozart, Brahms, film scoring, music of the Roma (Gypsies), exiled composers, and music in the camps.
New York City, NY; NYC