The Prague Symphony Orchestra (Prague, Czech Republic, Czech: Symfonický orchestr hlavního města Prahy FOK) was founded in 1934 by Rudolf Pekárek. In the 1930s the orchestra performed the scores for many Czech films, and also appeared regularly on Czech radio. An early promoter of the orchestra was Dr. Václav Smetáček, who, in 1942 became the orchestra's chief conductor, a post he held for the next 30 years.
The orchestra has traditionally been known by the acronym FOK, standing for Film-Opera-Koncert, reflecting the orchestra's fields of activity as envisioned by its founder. When the city of Prague made the orchestra its official concert ensemble in 1952, it retained the acronym, giving it the official title Symphony Orchestra of the Capital City of Prague - FOK.
The orchestra has travelled extensively in Europe, Japan, and the United States, and has recorded for many different labels. Since 2006, the orchestra's chief conductor is Jiří Kout.
Read more about Prague Symphony Orchestra: Principal Conductors, Contribution in Rock Crossover Projects
Famous quotes containing the words symphony and/or orchestra:
“The truth is, as every one knows, that the great artists of the world are never Puritans, and seldom even ordinarily respectable. No virtuous man—that is, virtuous in the Y.M.C.A. sense—has ever painted a picture worth looking at, or written a symphony worth hearing, or a book worth reading, and it is highly improbable that the thing has ever been done by a virtuous woman.”
—H.L. (Henry Lewis)
“As the artist
extends his world with
one gratuitous flourish—a stroke of white or
a run on the clarinet above the
bass tones of the orchestra ...”
—Denise Levertov (b. 1923)