What's in a Prague street name

Originally published on Twitter on 12 September 2022.

Ševčíkova was built in 1904.

Until 1947, this was Bendlova, after Karel Bendl (1838-97), composer, organiser of the Umělecká beseda’s music department, second conductor of the Deutsche Oper and later of Prague’s National Theatre.

Otakar Ševčík was born in Horažďovice in 1852. He started learning the violin at the age of seven, and was admitted to the Prague Conservatory in 1866.

After graduating, he became concertmaster at the Mozarteum in Salzburg (https://moz.ac.at/en/index.php) in 1870.

In 1875, he took up a position at the Russian Music Society in Kyiv, staying there until 1892.

This seems like a good juncture at which to point how admirable it is that, in September 2022, the Kyiv Conservatory is giving concerts: https://concert.ua/en/venue/nacionalnaja-muzykalnaja-akademija-ukrainy-im-pi-chaikovskogo…. Слава Україні.

He returned to Prague to take a position as a violin teacher at the Prague Conservatory, becoming head of department in 1901 (when Antonín Dvořák was the Conservatory’s director).

One of his pupils was a young Jan Kubelík (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2023/01/14/prague-3-day-138-kubelikova/).

Ševčík also set up a summer school for talented violinists, initially in Prachatice, but as the German-speaking authorities didn’t approve of his work with the Czech minority, he moved it to Písek.

He moved to the Viennese Music Academy in 1909, returning to the Prague Academy – as its director – when Czechoslovakia became independent.

He travelled to the US for teaching purposes on several occasions, and even taught in England at the age of 81. He died in 1934 and is buried in Písek.

His teachings works, such as The Little Ševčík and The School of Violin Technics, are still in use today.