These websites were created in 2008 at the initiative of Dagmar Virtová, daughter of Jiří Novák and her husband Robert Virt. Thanks to the possibility of accessing extensive family archives of members of the Smetana Quartet, their colleagues, and friends, after about two years of work, the opportunity to gradually pass on these materials in a relatively cohesive and documented form to the wider public finally arose. This website should serve not only music lovers but also for study and research purposes.

I would like to thank not only the families of the quartet members for providing materials, especially Vladimir Kostecký for his extensive private archive of photographs, but also Maria Kohoutová and Miloslav Kulhan for providing interviews. Life partner of Jaroslav Rybenský, Eva Sobíšková, and Karel Špelina for providing documentation and authentic memories. Petr Kadlec, Pavel Hůla, Masha Kohoutová, Jiří Hubač, Viktor Moučka, Břetislav Novotný, Jiří Panocha, Vladimir Kostecký, Petr Páleníček, Stanislav Vaněk, Václav Roubal, Jiří Pilka, Vladimír Prudič, Luboš Stehlík, Michal Kulhan, Helena Bártíková, Ivana Simonová, and webmaster Pavel Zbytovský are the ones who also helped us in preparing these websites.

Dagmar Virtová

Contact: virtovadagmar@seznam.cz