Czernogorsk Fugue, Composed by Tomáš Svoboda & Presented by Choral Arts Ensemble of Portland

Composed by Tomáš Svoboda
Performed April 28, 2024
Born in Paris to Czech parents, Svoboda and his family moved back to Prague after World War II, and he graduated from Prague Conservatory in 1962 with degrees in percussion, composition, and conducting; he was also a piano virtuoso. Two years later, the family fled the Communist regime to the United States, where he earned his master’s in composition at the University of Southern California. In 1970, he joined the music department at Portland State University, and he lived and worked in Portland for the rest of his life. He originally composed this piece, based on a Slavic folk poem, in Prague in 1956 while still a teenager but revised it in Portland in 1991.