Eugen Suchon

Eugen Suchon was a Slovak composer and music educator. A son of a musical family (his father was an organist and choirmaster, and his mother taught piano), Suchon began taking courses at the Bratislava Music School at age 12, and he became a pupil of the composer and pianist Frico Kafenda. Between 1927 and 1931, he attended the Bratislava Academy of Music, where he continued his studies in composition with Kafenda, and also pursued conducting and piano. For his post-graduate studies, he worked with Vitezslav Novák at the Prague Conservatory. Soon afterwards, he began teaching at the Bratislava Academy of Music and Drama. He composed in a post-Romantic style, and he frequently arranged Slovak folk songs, which influenced the modal qualities of his own works, particularly his first opera, Krútnava (The Whirlpool). From 1948 to 1960, he served as the head of the Department of Music Education at the Bratislava Teacher Training College, while writing numerous chamber and vocal works. This middle period culminated in Král' Svätopluk (King Svätopluk), his second opera, which won international attention. It was performed in Bratislava, Prague, and Kolsice in 1960. From 1959 until his retirement in 1974, Suchon was professor of music theory at Bratislava University. His music in this period was strongly influenced by serialism, and in his later years he composed mostly orchestral and chamber works.
© Blair Sanderson /TiVo