Janacek, Leos b. July 3, 1854 d. August 12, 1928 Composer. The son of a choirmaster, he founded the Organ Conservatory of Brno in 1881 and much of his life was devoted to teaching and scholarly research. Janacek was 50 when his first major composition, the opera "Jenufa" (1904), appeared; and it was not until that opera was staged in Prague in 1916 (when he was 62) that he enjoyed widespread success. This stirred him into a real sunburst of creativity and in his last decade Janacek produced one masterpiece after another: the symphonic...[Read More] (Bio by: Robert Edwards) Central Cemetery, Brno, Jihomoravsky, Czech Republic Plot: Just off the main walkway
Kapralova, Vitezslava b. January 24, 1915 d. June 16, 1940 Composer, Conductor. An exceptional Czech musician in the years between World Wars I and II. Although she died at 25, she left a substantial body of work and became one of the first internationally recognized female conductors. Kapralova was born in Brno, Moravia, and began music lessons at age nine with the encouragement of her father, composer Vaclav Kapral. She attended the Brno Conservatory from 1930 to 1935, winning top honors for her Piano Concerto in D minor (1935), and then spent...[Read More] (Bio by: Robert Edwards) Central Cemetery, Brno, Jihomoravsky, Czech Republic
Mendel, Gregor Johann b. 1822 d. 1884 Geneticist. Austrian monk and biologist born in Heizendorf, Austria (now Hynçice ion the Czech Republic), he is considered to be the father of genetics. His groundbreaking work in the theories of heredity used simple pea pod plants (28,000 of them) with which he studied seven basic characteristics. Tracing these he discovered three basic laws that govern the passage of a trait from one member of a species to another member of the same species. His first law states that the sex cells of a plant...[Read More] (Bio by: Fred Beisser) Central Cemetery, Brno, Jihomoravsky, Czech Republic
b. July 3, 1854 d. August 12, 1928