program notes by composition > S > Smetana Fanfare
Karel Husa
Smetana Fanfare
for Wind Ensemble was commissioned by the San Diego State University for a Festival of Music honoring Czech composer Bedřich Smetana. It was premiered by the SDSU Wind Ensemble on April 3, 1984 on the occasion of the centennial celebration of Smetana’s death. The work uses two excerpts from Smetana’s symphonic poem, “Wallenstein’s Camp,” completed during his exile from Prague in 1859 in Gothenburg, Sweden.
Karel Husa (1921–2016) was born in Prague. He immigrated to the United States in 1954 and became an American citizen in 1959. He taught composition and conducting at Cornell University for 38 years until his retirement in 1992. He won the Pulitzer Prize for music in 1969 and the Grawemeyer Award for Music
Composition in 1993. He died at the age of 95 at his home in North Carolina.
Smetana Fanfare
Last updated on March 13, 2018 by Palatine Concert Band