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Rudolf Pekárek (24 February 1900 – 26 October 1974) was a Czech-Australian conductor.[1][2]
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.[3] 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.[4] 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.[3] He escaped the Germans in 1944, joined the Czech Army of Liberation and survived the war (see Resistance in German-occupied Czechoslovakia).[5] In October 1948 he emigrated to Sydney, Australia on the Ugolino Vivaldi.[1][6]
Pekárek was broadcast on Adelaide radio station, 5AD, in September 1949 when conducting the South Australian Symphony Orchestra with Clement Q Williams as soloist.[7] By November of that year he was appointed as a conductor for the ABC Orchestra of Western Australia.[3][5] Later it became the West Australian Symphony Orchestra, which he also conducted.[8]
In 1954 he became chief conductor of the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, a post he held until 1967.
He died in 1974, in Brisbane.
The annual Rudolph [sic] Pekarek Oboe Prize at the Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University was established in his honour, the prize money being paid from his estate.[9]
A collection of his biographical cuttings is held at the National Library of Australia [10]
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