W. A. Mozart - booklet

Catalogue number	0695
Date of issue	31.8.2011
Face value	20 CZK
Print sheets	á 6 die-cut self-adhesive stamps
Size of picture	52 x 30 mm
Graphic designer	Marina Richterová
Engraver	Martin Srb
Printing method	multicoloured offset

Expressively conducting Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with an original copy of the Don Giovanni score and the Prague's Estates Theatre in the background.
A stamp identified with the letter E corresponding to the price of Ordinary Item up to 20 g - European countries in international priority service (current price according to the Price List of Basic Postal Services: CZK 20).
Price of the booklet as of the date of issue: 6times CZK 20, i.e. CZK 120.
Stamps identified with a letter can be used alone or in combination to mail any sort of domestic or international products.

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Johann Gerstner (1851-1939) - Common Czech-Slovenian Issue

Catalogue number	A0682
Date of issue	27.5.2011
Face value	34 CZK
Print sheets	A + 1
Size of picture	80 x 120 mm
Graphic designer	Karel Zeman
Engraver Printing method	Jaroslav Tvrdoň recess print from flat plate in black combined with offset in blue, red, yellow and black

This common Czech-Slovenian issue featuring violinist Johann Gerstner commemorates the 160th anniversary of his birth.
Johann (Hans) Gerstner (August 17th, 1851, Žlutice - January 9th, 1939, Ljubljana) spent most of his life in Ljubljana where he left a deep mark in the local community, although the memory of him and of his special merits is rather marginalized and suppressed. 
Emanuel Wirth, who later became a renowned and successful violinist and teacher, brought Gerstner to music. Both boys were taught how to play violin and music theory by Karl Rohm in Žlutice. Gerstner took also flute and singing lessons. Thirteen-year-old Gerstner (1864) was admitted to the Prague Conservatory, at that time one of the best music schools, to study violin. Josef Krejčí, the school's director, taught him harmony and general bass, the other theoretical subjects were taught by Josef Foerster whose brother Anton Foerster recommended Gernster to take up a job in Ljubljana. 
His post as a second violinist in Benewitz Quartet gave Gerstner (still as a student in Prague) an opportunity to play top contemporary Czech compositions, often directly from the original music sheets. He also played violin in the local German Opera Orchestra conducted by Bedřich Smetana. 
As a fresh graduate Gerstner took up the job of director of the Slovenian Theatre and violin teacher at the Filharmonic Society's Music School in Ljubljana. Teaching was at the core of his activities in Ljubljana. He taught at up to ten schools. During his 48-year career at the Filharmonic Society's Music School he formed more than a thousand violinists; Leo Funtek from Slovenia, who became a renowned violinist, conductor and composer based in Helsinki, Finland, was the most successful of Gerstner's students. 
Gerstner gave more than 700 concerts as an active performing violinist. He also played first violin at 154 concerts of chamber music. At his last orchestra performance (1911) he played both Beethoven's Romances. He gave his last public performance in 1929 at a concert commemorating 100 years from Franz Schubert's death. He also played violin in the main church choir in Ljubljana every Sunday for a long 40-year period, regularly attended workshops in Graz, Vienna, Salzburg, Mannheim and Cologne as a violinist and teacher, and worked as regional representative of Richard Wagner Company in Ljubljana. 
Gerstner married Josefina Gnezda (Gnesda), daughter of the Slon Hotel in Ljubljana, who gave him three children: Edith, Maria and Hans Gerstner Jr. All three were talented musicians. Hans, who took violin lessons from Gerstner's fellow student and famous violin teacher Otakar Ševčík, followed in his father's footsteps for some time. 
Despite his merits and medal received from Emperor Franz Joseph in 1902, Gerstner spent his old age in destitution and poverty. He was unable to earn some extra money because of his impaired vision. He died in 1939, his wife and a daughter met tragic death in a bomb attack on Ljubljana in 1945. His son Hans moved to Vienna where he wrote several books. 
As a skilled violinist and teacher Gerstner paved the way for the development of the art of violin play in Slovenia. All further generations of violin teachers were able to build on the first and most essential foundations laid by him. But his contribution and unselfish dedication were not sufficiently appreciated, possibly due to his German origin because at the time of his life in Ljubljana the Slovenian population greatly disliked Germans. Yet he was a Ljubljaner who together with his family spent most of their life in Ljubljana. During his life he did not gain a position he was entitled to, despite his great contribution to the development of Slovenian culture.


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200 Years of Teaching at the Prague Conservatory

Catalogue number	0679
Date of issue	6.4.2011
Face value	10 CZK
Print sheets	50 stamps
Size of picture	23 x 40 mm
Graphic designer	Marina Richterová
Engraver Printing method	Martin Srb rotary recess print in black combined with photogravure in rosy, ochre, olive green and black

The Prague Conservatory, established in 1808 as a school for professional training of orchestral musicians, ranks among the oldest European schools of its kind. A proclamation, issued by music-loving Prague aristocrats on April 25th, 1808, became the primary stimulus for its foundation; it is now considered the founding charter of the Prague Conservatory. The first contributions started arriving soon after its publication, with the number of contributors steadily growing. The forthcoming Napoleonic wars delayed the plans, so that the organization "Society for Improving Music in the Czech Lands" set up by the aristocrats in March 1810 as a body intended to fund and manage the school over the following (more than 100) years, had to wait until April 24th, 1811 for the opening of first classes. Until the autumn of 1811 when the school managed to secure its own premises and "get under the roof" at the Dominican monastery of St Giles, the students were taught at their teacher's private rooms according to the first director Bedřich Dionýs Weber's syllabus. Singing lessons were added in 1817 to the already existing courses in orchestral instruments. The school significantly contributed to the development of Prague's musical life in the following period, with concerts provided by the school orchestra and the students' involvement in local professional orchestras being of vital importance and attracting praise of most renowned composers, such as C.M. Weber, R. Wagner, H. Berlioz, F. Liszt.
Bedřich Smetana applied for the post of the school's director in 1866, but he lost to organ school director Josef Krejčí, the candidate chosen by the selection board. 
The golden age of the school came in 1884; it moved to the newly completed Rudolfinum building and employed famous violin teacher Antonín Bennewith as director. New programmes, including piano, organ, composition and conducting courses, became available in 1890, after the school merged with the organ school, and in 1891 the school managed to secure Antonín Dvořák, first as a composition teacher and later as the school director (1901-1904). Dvořák formed a large number of leading composers, such as Josef Suk, Vítězslav Novák, operetta composers Oskar Nedbal and Franz Lehár, although the school boasts also other famous alumni, such as Otakar Ševčík, Jan Kubelík, Jaroslav Kocian, Václav Talich, Karel Ančerl, Rafael Kubelík, Bohuslav Martinů, Alois Hába, to name just a few.
After 1918, the conservatory was nationalized and lost its premises at the Rudolfinum. It moved to a Benedictine monastary, and later to the building of a former chemical institute at Trojanova street, before it ended in its present premises on Prague's Old Town Na Rejdišti street. A drama school, providing courses in drama, was added to the school's departments in 1919. The key figure contributing to its formation was legendary actress Otýlie Sklenářová-Malá. The school's directors in the period between the two world wars included famous figures such as Josef Suk, Vítězslav Novák, J.B. Foerster, Vilém Kurz, Jaroslav Kocian, and others. After World War II, a dancing department (an independent Dancing Conservatory after 1980) was formed, and the Prague Conservatory's "Master School" (providing follow-up courses after completion of standard programmes) was transformed into an independent academy of music. Václav Holznknecht (the school's director from 1942 to 1970), a lawyer, pianist and popularizer of music, led the school during the difficult time of the Nazi occupation and most of the communist regime. In 1986, a popular music department was established to provide courses in two major subjects, singing and composition.
After the change in the society in November 1989, both teachers and students worked hard to meet the constantly increasing demands laid upon music and theatre professionals. The school's major commitment is to sustain the high reputation of the school and to further expand the famous, two-century-old tradition of the school, which during its existence formed a myriad of musicians, composers, singers, dancers, and actors and played a significant role in the development of music education of the Czech population.

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