Jana Tauchmanová

"Yes. Most of them, like us, were probably immigrants. But now I will focus on Mr Director Kratochvíl: another personality who greatly influenced my life until the last days of his life. Cultural life in Vrchlabí was thanks to, as you say, those immigrated people who came from different parts where they were already used to working in choirs, in orchestras, theatre groups, in museums and I don't know where else I can remember, so they managed to transfer that life to Vrchlabí. Vrchlabí, let's say, in the middle of the 1950s, had such an extremely rich social life, precisely thanks to Mr Josef Václav Kratochvíl, who was the first director of the Music School in Vrchlabí from 1945 and worked here until 1958. I will return to our move from Brno to Vrchlabí. Of course, our parents were also interested in where my brother and I would continue learning to play musical instruments. And so I entered the Music School, which was at that time, located on the square, where – I think – today the Police of the Czech Republic is based. And there I continued to play the piano with Mrs Marie Kastnerová, the eldest. There, of course, I joined the Vrchlabští zpéváčci (little singers from Vrchlabí), a choir led by the director Kratochvíl."

"It didn't look like there would be an ensemble right away. We are at school, not only the teachers, but I taught music here, and we sang a lot. And I'll follow up on something: Vrchlabí Gymnasium, at that time, an eleven-year high school. In the morning - on Monday, or whatever day it was - all the classes got out of their classrooms at five minutes to eight. They exercised in the corridor and then sang. And I remembered it, and we also started doing it here (in Špindlerův Mlýn) - we performed the so-called Songs of the Week. The teachers would write the song lyrics on the blackboard, and one of our students, who played the harmonica, played the harmonica on the school radio, and the whole school learned that song. We started with Czech and Moravian songs, and then we started adding Krkonoše songs as well. And you know it best, there will be moments in class - it doesn't work now, they don't understand me now - that's the fatigue. The reasons are various. Personal or social, any. Alright, let's go practice. First between the desks, then in the corridor, then meeting in the gym in the afternoon. And so it has begun. And then the first steps, the first dances, then I can already do something, the first two dances, then we'll perform it somewhere."