LUMIR-HLAHOL-TYL SINGING SOCIETY

The LUMIR-HLAHOL-TYL SINGING SOCIETY was a Czech organization begun in 1867 in the Sawtell-Croton area of Cleveland as the Lumir Singing Society, which later merged with the Hlahol Singing Society and the Tyl Dramatic Society. Lumir was named after a famous Czech chorus in Prague. Founders of the Cleveland society, open only to men until 1880, included A. J. Roch and Vaclav Rychlik. In its early years, the society sang Czech choral works and songs. On 11 Feb. 1898 it presented the Cleveland premiere of Smetana's The Bartered Bride to a full house of 1,650 spectators at Bohemian National Hall. Edward Krejsa, a product of the Prague Conservatory of Music who studied under Dvorak, became musical director of the society in 1907 and held that position for the next 35 years. The Hlahol Singing Society, which was formed in 1896 under the direction of Anton Machan, merged with the Lumir group in 1918. In May 1940 the Lumir-Hlahol Society merged with the Tyl Dramatic Society, which had been formed in 1881 (sometimes given as 1874). Known for a time as the Budivoy Dramatic Club Society, in 1903 the organization adopted the name of another Czech cultural leader, playwright Josef Tyl. By 1919 the society had 60 members and was producing a play a month during its season from Oct. to May. As with many local ethnic cultural organizations, an aging membership prompted dissolution of the combined Lumir-Hlahol-Tyl Singing Society in the 1980s.


Black, white and red text reading Western Reserve Historical Society

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Lumir-Hlahol-Tyl Singing Society Records, WRHS.

See also MUSIC and OPERA.


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