Josef Suk

Josef Suk (4 January 1874 – 29 May 1935) was a Czech composer and violinist. Suk was born in Křečovice. He studied at Prague Conservatory from 1885 to 1892, where he was a pupil of Antonín Dvořák and Antonín Bennewitz. In 1898, he married Dvořák's eldest daughter, Otilie Dvořáková (1878–1905), affectionately known as Otilka. In 1901, she bore him their only son, Josef (1901 – 1951). Otilie died in 1905, and the composer never remarried. He formed the Czech Quartet with three of his fellow students — Suk played second violin with them for most of his life. From 1922 he taught at the Prague Conservatory where his pupils included Bohuslav Martinů, Rudolf Firkušný and Manoah Leide-Tedesco. He died in Benešov. Suk's early works show the...