Autographed bi-fold program for a concert, November 4, 1948 in Prague at Smetana Hall by the Prague Symphony (FOK). Rare as it came before his time in Australia.
Rudolf
Pekárek (1900 – 1974) was a Czech-Australian conductor.
In
1934 he founded the Prague Symphony Orchestra, giving work to many
unemployed musicians. It was known as the FOK Orchestra (Film – Opera –
Konzert), or the FOK Salon Orchestra or sometimes Pekárek's Salon Orchestra. At
the beginning the ensemble made its living by intensive recording of music for
films, and only later changed its focus to presenting the standard repertoire
in concert. It first played on radio on 29 December 1934.
As
a Jew, Pekárek was imprisoned in 1942 during the German occupation
during World War II. He was forced to work in Polish mines. He
escaped the Germans in 1944, joined the Czech Resistance and survived the war. In
October 1948 he emigrated to Sydney, Australia on the Ugolino Vivaldi.
Pekárek
was broadcast on Adelaide radio station, 5AD, in September 1949 when
conducting the South Australian Symphony Orchestra with Clement Q
Williams as soloist. By November of that year he was appointed as a
conductor for the ABC Orchestra of Western Australia. Later it became
the West Australian Symphony Orchestra, which he also conducted. In 1954
he became chief conductor of the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, a post he
held until 1967. He died in 1974,
in Brisbane.
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