Katrovas to combine storytelling and song in recital of Czech composers

KALAMAZOO, Mich.—Western Michigan University School of Music alumna and soprano Ema Katrovas will perform a recital of songs by Czech composers at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 24, in the Dalton Center Recital Hall. The event is free and open to the public.

The recital, titled "Sung into the Distance," showcases the songs of famous Czech 20th-century composer Bohuslav Martinů and his student and close friend Vítězslava Kaprálová. The recital will be accompanied by commentary on the composers' four-year friendship and the pre-World War II era they lived in. The project is under the auspices of Opera Studio Prague, a student-led, multidisciplinary performance group based in the Czech Republic. The recital will be accompanied by Dr. Timothy Cheek of the University of Michigan, who has dedicated much of his career to the promotion and interpretation of the work of Vítězslava Kaprálová.

Katrovas

Ema Katrovas hails from the Czech Republic, where she just finished her studies at Prague's Academy of Music. While still a student at the academy, she began performing at professional opera houses across the Czech Republic. She debuted as Barbarina in W.A. Mozart's "Le Nozze di Figaro" with the Kammer Oper Prague and toured Germany and Austria as the First Lady in "Die Zauberflöte" with the F.X. Šalda Theater in Liberec, where she subsequently sang La Charmeuse in Massenet's "Thaïs." In 2017, she debuted at the Silesian Theater in Opava as the First Nymph in "Rusalka" by A. Dvořák. She is also an active concert soloist in Prague, regularly performing with various instrumental and choral ensembles.

She is the daughter of Richard Katrovas, WMU creative writing professor and founder of the Prague Summer Program for Writers. This October will be her first visit to the United States since she received her bachelor's degree in music and English at WMU in 2013.

For more information about the concert, visit wmich.edu/music or call (269) 387-4667.

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