Rare autographed 6.5" x 10" presentation style photograph of the great Czech conductor on heavy stock, January 29, 1944.  Half tone image.

Jaroslav Krombholc (1918-1983) Czech conductor

He came from a family of musicians and while in grammar school he became the only private student of O.Ostrčil (1934/1935).  After graduating from a grammar school in Mělník in 1937, he studied composition with Otakar  Šín at the Prague Conservatory and at Viteslav Novák's master school (1937-1940), conducting with Pavel Dědeček (1938-1940) and at the master school with Vaclav Talich (1940-1942).  He also studied quarter-tone and six-tone piano with Alois. Hába (1940-1942). In 1937-1939 (until the closure of Czech universities due to the Nazi occupation) he studied German and French at the Faculty of Arts of Charles University. He began as a talented composer and an excellent pianist.  He composed symphonic and chamber works, but soon preferred conducting.  As a conductor and composer he collaborated with the E. F. Burian Theater (1939/1940). In 1940 Zdenek Chalabala invited him to the National Theater where he was engaged from April 1, 1940 to December 30, 1943. A few months later he made his Czech Philharmonic debut. In addition to his conducting at the National Theater, he also served as the head of the State Theater Opera in Ostrava.  After the War, on June 11, 1945, Krombholc, Otakar Jeremiáš and Karel Nedbal were appointed as the collective management of the National Theater Opera. In December 1948 he was again appointed member of the opera management of the opera with Otakar Jeremias. From September 1949, when he was appointed chief of opera at the National Theater.  Krombholc worked in the National Theater until 15 September 1975, alternately in the positions of conductor, chief conductor and opera chief (1968-1970). Even after his departure to the post of chief of the Czechoslovak Radio Symphony Orchestra (1975-1978), he conducted the National Theater as a guest conductor. He has recorded a number of radio and gramophone films both at home and abroad. He participated in tours of the National Theater Opera in Moscow (1955), Berlin (1956) and Brussels (1958). He studied for example Jenůfa (1947) and The Bartered Bride (1947, 1948, 1958, 1959) in Vienna. He passed away at the age of 65 and is buried in the family tomb in Mělník.


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