Salve Imperator

World-renowned march composer Julius Fučík was born in Prague in 1872. An authentic and versatile Bohemian musician, Fučík attended the conservatory in his hometown for violin and bassoon. In 1891 he studied composition with Antonín Dvořák. Fučík played bassoon in several symphony and theatre orchestras. As common in Austria of that time, he had to prove himself in a military band. Fučík played in the Lower Austrian Infantry Regiment 84 under the direction of Josef Franz Wagner (composer of “Under the Double Eagle”) in Krems and later Karl Komzák in Vienna. Julius Fučík himself also conducted military bands, such as the Infantry Regiment 86, stationed in Sarajevo in 1897 when he took over the band; it was redeployed to Budapest in 1900. During those years, Fučík was also very active as a composer, writing one of his most famous marches „Entry of the Gladiators“. From 1910 to 1913 he conducted the band of Infantry Regiment 92 in Terezienstadt before moving to Berlin, where he married and founded both an orchestra and a publishing company (“Tempo-Verlag”). Three years later he died at the young age of 44.