Otomar Kvěch

Otomar Kvěch (25 May 1950 – 16 March 2018) was a Czech music composer and teacher. Biography Kvěch was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia. His father was a sound engineer with Czechoslovak Radio, and later held technical jobs in various industrial companies. Kvěch’s mother was a shop-assistant. In 1955, he had his first lessons in piano. He prepared for three years for his entry exam to the Prague Conservatory, and graduated after studying composition with Jan Zdeněk Bartoš and organ with Joseph Kuban. After 1969, he studied composition at the Prague Academy of Performing Arts with Jiří Pauer, as well as one semester with Emil Hlobil. After graduation, he worked as an accompanist at the Opera National Theatre. In 1972, he married Miluška Wagnerová, a fellow-student from his organ class, and had daughters Eva (b. 1974) and Martina (b. 1977). In 1990, political and social changes in his country forced Kvěch to return to a job at Czechoslovak Radio as programme manager and music editor. At the same time, he began teaching music theory and composition at Prague Conservatory. In 2000, Kvěch’s wife died, and three years later he married Jana Smékalová, long-time programme manager of Suprapho