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Karel Bendl
Bendl, Karel (1838-1897). Czech composer and conductor. Studied at the Prague Organ School (1855-1858), from which he graduated top of his class. Then engaged as a teacher at the Music Institute of Celestin Müller, he was also active in the developing Czech-orientated musical environment as a composer, organizer and conductor, associated with the founding of the choral society Hlahol as a secretary and assistant rehearsal conductor. In 1864-1865 worked in Brussels, Amsterdam and Paris as a conductor, and then returned to Prague becoming Director of Hlahol in 1866. He became associated with the Czech Provisional Theatre in the rôle of second conductor (1874-1875), was director of music in the Little Quarter church of St Nicholas, but temporarily left Prague again in 1878 to work as conductor of the private orchestra of the Russian aristocrat Dervais in Switzerland. After a brief spell in Milan in 1881 he returned permanently to Prague. His abilities as a composer, although somewhat derivative, were considerable and impressive, and he contributed much to the development and progress of Czech opera and vocal music over a period of almost 30 years.