Page:Czecho-Slovak Student Life, Volume 18.djvu/377

Kellner’s art, that of the Chicago Women’s Symphony Orchestra, Ethel Leginska conducting. This canvas, now on exhibition at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York, is the outcome of the artist’s interest in music and his connection with musical circles thru his wife. We make passing mention here of the fact that both Mrs. Kellner and her sister, an eminent violinist, completed their studies in Prague, the latter under Otakar Ševčík himself. The artist tells us that the inspiration for the painting came when he attended one of the Women’s Symphony concerts. The first sketch was made then and there, on the back of his program.

Incidentally, Mr. Kellner has a theory that painting and music are, in some respects, very similar. “Both have their majors and minors, their fortes and their pianissimos”, he says, and acting on this principle he attends as many concerts as art exhibitions. Whether all this augurs a greater production of paintings of musical subjects we do not know. We hope so. America has not had, as yet, a very complete record of her musical life from her painters.

At present Mr. Kellner is engaged in painting a portrait of Dr. T. W. Burrows, medical director of the Central Life Insurance Co. The picture is to hang in the Burrows Hospital in Chicago.

Mr. Kellner is a member of Des Artistes De La Region De Paris, the Independent Art Society of New York, the All Illinois Art Society, the Illinois Academy of Fine Arts, and the Elks. His studio is located at 1022 Argyle St., Chicago, Ill.

Bonnard, the famous modern French painter, has this to say of Mr. Kellner’s art. It is the tribute of a master to his pupil.

“Chas. H. Kellner has painted Normandy strong and healthy. He shows excellent taste in his compositions and is a natural born colorist. There is harmony and an abundance of individuality in his paintings.”

On the evening of February 21, at a meeting of the American Geographical Society of New York, the Charles P. Daly gold medal of the society was presented to Professor Alois Musil, of Prague University, in recognition of a lifetime devoted to explorations in northern Arabia and Mesopotamia and to historical researches relating to this part of the world. After the ceremony, Professor Musil delivered a lecture entitled “Desert Life in Northern Arabia.”

A concert of Czech songs was given Wednesday, March 14th, in Carnegie Hall. A well known American chorus of two hundred members, under the direction of Hugh Ross, sang Czech songs in the Czech language. Since the premier production of Smetana’s Bartered Bride in 1909, this concert is the most important event in the history of Czech music in America. It is the first time that an American chorus sang Czech in the Czech language.

The director responsible for the production of this concert is Hugh Ross, who was born in Loganport and trained in the Royal Conservatory in London. There he met Czech teachers of music, who aroused in him a deep interest for Czech music and influenced him to come to Bohemia, where he conceived the idea of producing a concert of Czech compositions in America. Ross intends to publish a book of Czech folk songs with piano accompaniment.