Joe Gilbert asked: >Can anyone provide information on Rudolph Karel, died in Terezinstadt >in 1945. Compositions? biography? The Grove entry, without a number of accents: Karel, Rudolf (b Pizen, 9 Nov 1880, d Terezin, 6 March 1945). Czech composer and teacher. In Prague he studied law at the university and composition at the conservatory, where he was Dvorak's last pupil. During World War I he was interned in Russia; he taught at the Taganrog Music School and worked at the Rostov Conservatory, also joining the Musicians' Union and directing the Irkutsk Music School. In 1918 he joined the Czech legion, within which he established a symphony orchestra and conducted it in about 90 concerts. He was, in 1923, made professor of composition and orchestration at the Prague Conservatory, a position from which he was forced in 1941. Arrested by the Gestapo in 1943, he died in the Terezin concentration camp. Karel's early compositions were greatly influenced by Dvorak and Tchaikovsky, but his mature style is complexly polyphonic, showing predilections for involved variation form, modally-tinged harmony and irregular rhythm; comparisons can be made with Reger. The difficulty of his music kept it from immediate acceptance, and in later years Karel tended towards simplification. Works (selective list): Operas: Ilscino srdce (Ilsa's Heart), 1909; Smrt kmotricka (Grandmother's Death), 1932; Tri slzte vlasy deda rseveda (The Three Golden Hairs of the Knowledgeable Grandfather), 1948, completed by Vostrak. Orchestral: Scherzo capriccioso, 1904; Idealy, 1909; Renesancni symfonie, 1911; 4 Slavonic Dance Moods, 1912; Demon - symphonic poem, 1920; Jarni symfonie (Spring Symphony), 1938; Revolucni predehra, 1941. Cantatas: Vzkriseni (Resurrection), 1927; Sladka balada detska, 1930. He sounds like a good candidate for Decca's Entartete Musik series. Richard Pennycuick [log in to unmask]