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Josef Bohuslav Foerster (1859–1951)

Josef Bohuslav Foerster

Czech composer (b. 30 December 1859 at Dětenice, near Prague; d. 29 May 1951 at Nový Vestec).

The son of the composer Josef Foerster (1833–1907), who was a professor at the Prague Conservatory, Josef studied at the Prague Organ School (1879–1882), before succeeding Dvořák as organist of Saint Vojtěch (1882–1888). He also taught singing in Prague secondary schools, and at the age of 25 he began a long career as a music and theatrical critic, writing for the newspaper Národní listy.

After marrying the Czech soprano Berta Lautererová in 1888, the couple settled in Hamburg five years later, where Josef began to write for the Neue Hamburger Zeitung, the Hamburger freie Presse, and the Hamburger Nachtrichten. His appointment as teacher of piano at the Hamburg Conservatory proved to be short-lived (1901–1903), when Josef and Berta removed to Vienna, but he became professor of composition at the New Conservatory in the Austrian capital, and from 1910 was music critic for the daily newspaper Die Zeit.

On the formation of the newly-independent state of Czechoslovakia, he returned to Prague as professor of composition at the conservatory (1919–1922), later teaching music at the University (1920–1936). From 1931 until 1939 he was president of the Czech Academy of Sciences and Art. 

Correspondence with Josef Bohuslav Foerster:

• 3 letters from Tchaikovsky to Josef Bohuslav Foerster have survived, dating from 1892 and 1893.