Karel Komzák I

Karel Komzák I (4 November 182319 March 1893) was a Bohemian composer, organist, bandmaster and conductor. He was the father of Karel Komzák II and the grandfather of Karel Komzák III. Biography Karel Komzák was born in 1823 in Netěchovice, near Týn nad Vltavou, now in the České Budějovice District of the Czech Republic. A memorial plaque now commemorates his birthplace. He learned the violin from his father, a blacksmith but also a popular folk singer and acclaimed violinist, and studied with Moritz Mildner and Antonín Bennewitz at the Prague Conservatory. He studied at the School for Organists and became a village teacher. Later he was an organist at a lunatic asylum, the National Institute for the Mentally Ill, where he worked for 19 years. and a theatre conductor in Linz. Among its players were Antonín Dvořák (viola) and the composer’s own son Karel Komzák II (violin). He was succeeded in this post by Bedřich Smetana. In 1865 Komzák was appointed bandmaster in the 11th Infantry Regiment of the Austro-Hungarian Army in Innsbruck. He served in this post for the next 15 years in a variety of locations. In 1876 he declined an offer to conduct at the World Exhibition in Chicago, fol