What's in a Prague street name

Kovařovicova was built in 1965.

Karel Kovařovic was born in Prague’s Malá Strana in 1862, into a family so musical that it even formed its own orchestra.

Kovařovic studied harp, piano and clarinet at the Prague Conservatory of Music, graduating in 1879. Among those he studied under was the composer Zdeněk Fibich (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2023/01/14/prague-3-day-143-fibichova/).

In 1881, he paid clarinet at the premiere of Smetana’s Libuše (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/09/30/prague-1-day-156-smetanovo-nabrezi-smetana-embankment/) at the National Theatre.

This was not your ordinary premiere – it was the first piece ever performed at the Theatre (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/09/14/prague-1-day-105-divadelni/). Kovařovic was a member of the Theatre’s orchestra until 1885.

In 1890, Kovařovic became director of the Pivoda Singing School; in 1895, he was the bandleader of the Czechoslovak ethnographic exhibition in Prague.

From 1890 to 1900 he was a teacher and director of the Pivoda Singing School, and in the 1894/1895 season he was also the choirmaster of the Hlahol in Vinohrady.

Then, in 1900, he became head of opera at the National Theatre, holding that role until his death. Before 1900, he had also made several compositions of his own, but, afterwards, his focus was on conducting and editing.

Kovařovic died in 1920, and is buried at Olšany Cemetery.

While his compositions are not necessarily that well-known compared to those of his contemporaries, he did compose several dozen songs for choirs, as well as piano works, chamber compositions, ballets, incidental music for plays and several operas.

If you do know one of his compositions well, you may have been a scout or worked with the scouts – his Skautská hymna (1912) is still sung by scouts at marches and official events.

Finally, if you want to link this street into other ones in the vicinity, one of Kovařovic’s operas was Psohlavci (1896-7), based on the novel by Alois Jirásek (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2025/12/17/prague-4-day-262-psohlavcu/).