Several books and musical works will go into the library of Sinfonia conductor Graeme Dennis after being donated to him by the daughter of composer and writer Jindrich Degen.
Eva Degen gave Graeme two books about the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and a number of publications for oboe edited and written by her father, including a book of easy studies by him and a book of his duets.
“The connection is that both of us were members of the MSO, but he had left before I joined. Eva and Alex are currently downsizing in preparation for moving to a retirement village and offered to gift the books to me,” Graeme said.
Jindrich (Henry) Degen passed away on September 12, 2022, aged 99.
Eva said he had left behind hundreds of quality works of art, many of which have been given away.
Jindrich was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic), in 1923. He had enjoyed drawing and painting since his childhood.
After completing his secondary education at a Prague Grammar school, however, he pursued his other great interest, music, following in the footsteps of his father.
He enrolled at the Prague Music Conservatorium in oboe and completed his studies with honours in 1947.
From 1943 until 1979 Jindrich performed as a solo oboist in various Symphony and Opera orchestras in Prague (National Theatre), Gothenburg, Sweden (Great Theatre), and in the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.
Beside his orchestral work, he also performed as a soloist and as a chamber music player. In addition, he worked privately as oboe teacher, and edited educational music, as well as old chamber music.
Jindrich moved to the Redlands in 1985 and joined the Yurara Art Society.
He had solo exhibitions at the Redland Art Galleries (Cleveland and Capalaba) in 2004, 2010 and 2015, and at Yurara in 2013.
Jindrich worked in various media, including charcoal, pastel, oil, water colour and acrylic.
“Individual artistic expression, according to his opinion, should be based on good drawing ability, colour combination, values, rhythm, and space. This way one can contribute as much as possible to the free creative process wherein imagination, rather than depiction, is of prime importance,” Eva said.
Eva said she was keen to give away many of his paintings and books which could be viewed on henrydegen.org.
