Lenka Hlávková (née Mráčková; 17 August 1974 – 21 December 2023) was a Czech

musicologist Musicology is the academic, research-based study of music, as opposed to musical composition or performance. Musicology research combines and intersects with many fields, including psychology, sociology, acoustics, neurology, natural sciences, f ...

. She served as head of the Institute of Musicology of

Faculty of Arts, Charles University The Faculty of Arts, Charles University (), is one of the original four faculties of Charles University in Prague. When founded, it was named the Faculty of the Liberal Arts or the Artistic Faculty. The faculty provides lectures in the widest ran ...

from 2012 to 2015 and again from 2021 until being fatally shot in the

2023 Prague shootings On 21 December 2023, 14 people were killed and 22 injured in a mass shooting at the main Faculty of Arts, Charles University, Faculty of Arts building of Charles University in central Prague, Czech Republic. Another three people were injured w ...

Life

Hlávková studied musicology at the

in Prague. She finished her master's studies in 1998, and in 2004 she received her Ph.D. During her studies, she completed internships abroad, including a doctoral internship at the

Humboldt University of Berlin The Humboldt University of Berlin (, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin, Germany. The university was established by Frederick William III on the initiative of Wilhelm von Humbol ...

from 1999–2000.

Career

Hlávková worked as an assistant professor at the Institute of Musicology at the Faculty of Arts of Charles University, where from 2012 to 2015 she was director, then deputy director, and then from December 2021, director of the institute again. She participated in various research projects and was the author of several professional articles. She had been a member of the

European Academy of Sciences and Arts The European Academy of Sciences and Arts (EASA, ) is a transnational and interdisciplinary network, connecting about 2,000 recommended scientists and artists worldwide, including 38 Nobel Prize laureates. The European Academy of Sciences and ...

since 2019. She specialized in

Renaissance music Renaissance music is traditionally understood to cover European music of the 15th and 16th centuries, later than the Renaissance era as it is understood in other disciplines. Rather than starting from the early 14th-century ''ars nova'', the mus ...

, the musical culture of Central Europe in the

Late Middle Ages The late Middle Ages or late medieval period was the Periodization, period of History of Europe, European history lasting from 1300 to 1500 AD. The late Middle Ages followed the High Middle Ages and preceded the onset of the early modern period ( ...

, and researched Czech music of the 15th and 16th century. She also worked to relate musical traditions within the context of the

Hussite file:Hussitenkriege.tif, upright=1.2, Battle between Hussites (left) and Crusades#Campaigns against heretics and schismatics, Catholic crusaders in the 15th century file:The Bohemian Realm during the Hussite Wars.png, upright=1.2, The Lands of the ...

and post-Hussite time periods for contemporary listeners and experts.

Death

Hlávková was a fatality of the Prague mass shooting at the Faculty of Arts of Charles University on 21 December 2023. Hlávková was apparently on her way out of her office on the fourth floor when the shooting started, as an Advent concert was also starting in the faculty building, in which thirteen more people were also killed. She was 49.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hlavkova, Lenka 1974 births 2023 deaths People from Louny Czech women musicologists Charles University alumni Academic staff of Charles University Mass murder victims People murdered in the Czech Republic Deaths by firearm in the Czech Republic Members of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts