Anniversary of the Award of the Honorary Doctorate to Leoš Janáček

Leoš Janáček: Four Male Choruses (1885), JW IV/17 (Part 1)
The Threat, JW IV/17-1

Leoš Janáček: Four Male Choruses (1885), JW IV/17 (Part 2)
Oh Love! JW IV/17-2

Leoš Janáček: Spondeo ac polliceor!

Leoš Janáček: Four Male Choruses (1885), JW IV/17 (Part 3 and 4)
Oh, the Army, JW IV/17-3
Your Beautiful Eyes, JW IV/17-4

Leoš Janáček: Four Male Moravian Choruses – a selection (1900, 1906), JW IV/28
If Only You Knew, JW IV/28-1
The Evening Witch, JW IV/28-3
Parting, JW IV/28-4

Leoš Janáček: Three Male Choruses – a selection (1888), JW/19
The Dove, JW/19-2
Parting, JW/19-1

Leoš Janáček: Chorus for the Laying of the Foundation Stone of Masaryk University in Brno (1928), JW IV/45

Leoš Janáček: Halfar the Schoolmaster (1906), JW IV/33

Leoš Janáček: True Love (1876), JW IV/8

 

In 1924 the Academic Senate of Masaryk University decided to award the first ever honorary doctorate to Leoš Janáček. The graduation ceremony took place in the auditorium of the Faculty of Arts of Masaryk University on 28 January 1925. It was certainly the composer’s greatest gift for his seventieth birthday, of which he was extremely proud, and for the rest of his life he always signed as Dr.Ph. Leoš Janáček. This important act will be commemorated in the authentic environment of the auditorium of the Faculty of Arts which, although it has changed somewhat since then, still bears a certain genius loci. Janáček delivered a solemn speech Spondeo ac polliceor! at the awarding of the doctorate. On the occasion of the upcoming 100th anniversary of the ceremony, Janáček’s speech will be delivered by composer Petr Kotík, who has lived in New York for many years and is an unmissable personality in the international context. Janáček’s male choirs will be performed by the Moravian Teachers Singing Association, for whom Janáček often composed.

Jiří Zahrádka