Czech Republic on Music Theory Print

Alexander Dreyschock

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Alexander Dreyschock (15 October 1818 – 1 April 1869) was a Czech pianist and composer. He was the brother of Raimund Dreyschock and the uncle of Felix Dreyschock. Life and career Born in Žáky in Bohemia, his musical talents were first noticed aged eight, and at age 15 he travelled to Prague to study piano and composition with Václav Tomášek. By the age of twenty, Dreyschock undertook his first professional tour in December 1838, performing in various northern and central towns in Germany. Subsequent tours saw him visiting Russia (1840–42), Paris (spring 1843), London, the Netherlands, Austria and Hungary (1846), as well as Denmark and Sweden in 1849. Elsewhere he caused a sensation with prodigious execution of thirds, sixths, and octaves, plus other tricks. When he made his Paris debut in 1843 he included a piece for the left hand alone. Dreyschock’s left hand was renowned, and his most famous technical stunt was to play the left-hand arpeggios of Chopin’s Revolutionary Étude in octaves. Observers of the time reported that he played it in correct tempo, and it is known that he programmed it in all of his recitals. Johann Baptist Cramer, who heard Dreyschock play in Paris, exclaime

Alexander Goldscheider

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Alexander Goldscheider (born 22 June 1950) is a Czech-born British composer, music producer, writer, computer specialist and photographer. Life and career He read music at Charles University in Prague, and received a PhD for his analysis of the music of The Beatles in 1975. Initially a music writer, critic, and radio/club DJ (1968–73), he moved into songwriting and music production, becoming a staff producer at Supraphon (1976–79), where he produced a number of pop, rock, and jazz LPs of Czech singers and bands. He pioneered the use of synthesizers in Czechoslovakia and his music was released by Panton Records and Supraphon, used on TV and in films. He moved to London in 1981, recorded two solo albums (Themes for a One-Man-Band Vol. 1 & 2), and in 1983 worked at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop producing his own music for radio, TV, and films. Goldscheider then co-founded a music and computer company Romantic Robot, which initially designed and sold hardware (Multiprint, Videoface, Multifaces 1, 2, 3, 128 and ST) and published software (Music Typewriter, Trans-Express, Genie, Wriggler) for ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, and Atari ST computers. Romantic Robot became a recording label in 1991

Anton Reicha

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Anton (Antonín, Antoine) Joseph Reicha (Rejcha) (26 February 1770 – 28 May 1836) was a Bohemia-born, Bavarian-educated, later naturalized French composer and music theorist. A contemporary and friend of Beethoven, he is now best remembered for his substantial early contributions to the wind quintet literature and his role as teacher of pupils including Franz Liszt, Hector Berlioz and César Franck. He was also an accomplished theorist, and wrote several treatises on various aspects of composition. Some of his theoretical work dealt with experimental methods of composition, which he applied in a variety of works such as fugues and études for piano and string quartet. None of the advanced ideas he advocated in the most radical of his music and writings, such as polyrhythm, polytonality and microtonal music, were accepted or employed by other nineteenth-century composers. Due to Reicha’s unwillingness to have his music published (like Michael Haydn before him), he fell into obscurity soon after his death and his life and work have yet to be intensively studied. Life 1770–1805: early years, first visit to Paris and the Viennese period Reicha was born in Prague. His father Šimon, the tow

Antonín Dvořák

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Early life#

Dvořák was born in Nelahozeves near Prague, in the Austrian Empire, and was the eldest son of (1814–1894) and his wife, (1820–1882). František worked as an innkeeper, a professional player of the zither, and a butcher. Anna was the daughter of Josef Zdeněk, the bailiff of the Prince of Lobkowicz. Anna and František married on 17 November 1840. Dvořák was the first of 14 children, eight of whom survived infancy. Dvořák was baptized as a Roman Catholic in the village’s church of St. Andrew. Dvořák’s years in Nelahozeves nurtured his strong Christian faith and the love for his Bohemian heritage that so strongly influenced his music. In 1847, Dvořák entered primary school and was taught to play violin by his teacher Joseph Spitz. He showed early talent and skill, playing in a village band and in church. František, unsuccessful as innkeeper and butcher but managed a living as a musician, was pleased with his son’s gifts. At the age of 13, through the influence of his father, Dvořák was sent to Zlonice in 1853 to live with his uncle Antonín Zdenĕk in order to learn the German language. His first composition, the “Forget-Me-Not Polka” in C (“Polka pomněnka”) was written possibly as early as 1855. Dvořák took organ, piano, and violin lessons from his German-language teacher . Liehmann also taught the young boy music theory and introduced him to the composers of the time; Dvořák had much regard for Liehmann despite his teacher’s violent temper. Liehmann was the church organist in Zlonice and sometimes let Antonín play the organ at services. Dvořák took further organ and music theory lessons at Česká Kamenice with Franz Hanke, who encouraged his musical talents even further and was more sympathetic. At the age of 16, at the urging of Liehmann and Zdenĕk, František allowed his son to become a musician, on the condition that the boy should work toward a career as an organist. After leaving for Prague in September 1857, Dvořák entered the city’s Prague Organ School, studying singing with Josef Zvonař, theory with František Blažek, and organ with . The latter was not only a professor at the Prague Conservatory, but also a composer for the organ; his son Josef Bohuslav Foerster became a better known composer. Dvořák also took an additional language course to improve his German and worked as an “extra” violist in numerous bands and orchestras, including the orchestra of the St. Cecilia Society. Dvořák graduated from the Organ School in 1859, ranking second in his class. He applied unsuccessfully for a position as an organist at , but remained undaunted in pursuing a musical career. In 1858, he joined Karel Komzák’s orchestra, with whom he performed in Prague’s restaurants and at balls. The high professional level of the ensemble attracted the attention of Jan Nepomuk Maýr, who engaged the whole orchestra in the Bohemian Provisional Theatre Orchestra. Dvořák played viola in the orchestra beginning in 1862. Dvořák could hardly afford concert tickets, and playing in the orchestra gave him a chance to hear music, mainly operas. In July 1863, Dvořák played in a program devoted to the German composer Richard Wagner, who conducted the orchestra. Dvořák had had “unbounded admiration” for Wagner since 1857. In 1862, Dvořák began composing his first string quartet. In 1864, Dvořák agreed to share the rent of a flat located in Prague’s Žižkov district with five other people, including violinist Mořic Anger and Karel Čech, who later became a singer. In 1866, Maýr was replaced as chief conductor by Bedřich Smetana. Dvořák was making about $7.50 a month. The constant need to supplement his income pushed him to give piano lessons.

Antonín Tučapský

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Antonín Tučapský (27 March 1928 – 9 September 2014) was a Czech composer. From 1973 until his death he lived in the United Kingdom. Biography Tučapský was born in 1928 in Opatovice (part of Vyškov) in Czechoslovakia. In 1947 he graduated from the Teachers’ Training College in Valašské Meziříčí. He studied in Brno before beginning his career as composer, teacher and conductor. From 1950 to 1951 he studied Choral Conducting at the Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts, Brno. In 1951 he graduated from Masaryk University, Brno, in Music Education and Musicology. Privately he studied composition with Jan Kunc, who was a pupil of Leoš Janáček. In 1951 he took up a teaching post at the Higher Music School in Kroměříž. In the same year he became a member of the well-known Moravian Teachers’ Male Voice Choir and from 1964 to 1972 he was a choirmaster of that choir. In 1955 Tučapský moved to Nový Jičín, where he accepted a teaching post at the Teachers’ Training College and also conducted the local mixed choir. In 1959 he moved to Ostrava and became a lecturer at the Pedagogical Faculty there. From 1961 he conducted the Children’s Choir of Ostrava Radio. In 1964 he became musical dire

Antonio Rosetti

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Francesco Antonio Rosetti (c. 1750 – 30 June 1792) was a classical era composer and double bass player, and was a contemporary of Haydn and Mozart. There is considerable confusion regarding his name. The occasional mention of a supposed, but non-existent, “Antonio Rosetti born 1744 in Milan”, is due to an error by Ernst Ludwig Gerber in a later edition of his Tonkünstler-Lexikon having mistaken Rosetti for an Italian in the first edition of his own Lexikon, and therefore including Rosetti twice - once as an Italian, once as a German-Czech. Many sources claim that he was born Franz Anton Rösler, and changed his name to an Italianate form by 1773, but according to a 1792 article by Heinrich Phillip Bossler, who knew Rosetti personally, he was named Rosetti from his birth. Life and career Rosetti was born about 1750 in Litoměřice, a town in Northern Bohemia. He is believed to have received early musical training from the Jesuits in Prague. In 1773 Rosetti left his native country and found employment in the Hofkapelle of Prince Kraft Ernst of Oettingen-Wallerstein whom he served for sixteen years, becoming Kapellmeister in 1785. While there, he orchestrated two piano concerti by Anna v

Arthur Willner

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Arthur Willner (5 March 18816 April 1959) was a Bohemian-German composer, pianist, and teacher who from 1938 lived and worked in the UK. Education and European career Willner was born in Turn () in Teplitz-Schönau, Bohemia, Austrian Empire. He attended the Leipzig Conservatory where he studied with Adolf Ruthardt (piano), Carl Reinecke (composition) and Carl Piutti (music theory). He then continued his studies at the Akademie der Tonkunst in Munich with Joseph Rheinberger (piano) and Ludwig Thuille (composition). In 1902 he secured his first significant academic post, as composition teacher and (from 1904) deputy director of the Stern Conservatory, Berlin. The position was secured after Gustav Hollaender heard his first string quartet. Fellow teachers there included Englebert Humperdink, Arnold Schoenberg and Ferrucio Busoni. Students he taught and influenced included Claudio Arrau, Otto Klemperer, Frederick Loewe, Edgar Varese, Kurt Weill and Stefan Wolpe. ) were living in the 7th district of Vienna, in the Zieglergasse. Exile in England On 15 March 1938 at the age of 57, Willner left Austria for Paris to escape the Anschluss; he moved to England later that year. After arriving in

Beata Hlavenková

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Beata Hlavenková, née Morávková (born 2 February 1978) is a Czech composer, singing pianist, arranger and producer. In June 2020 Hlavenková received an award as a Best female singer at Anděl Awards 2019. Discography Studio albums *S’aight (2004) *Eternal Seekers (2008) *Joy for Joel (2009) *Eternal Seekers (2012) (reedition from 2008) *Theodoros (2013) *Pišlické příběhy (2015) *Scintilla (2015) *Bethlehem (2017) *Sně (2019) *Žijutě (2021) References External links *

Čestmír Gregor

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Čestmír Gregor (14 May 1926 – 2 March 2011) was a Czech composer, theorist and publicist. His career as a composer lasted from 1942 to 2005, and encompassed a variety of styles and formats. Life and career Čestmír Gregor was born in Brno, the son of composer and theorist Josef Gregor (1892-1957) and Františka Gregorová Koldová. After graduating from grammar school, he studied composition at the Brno Conservatory with Jaroslav Kvapil and musicology at the Masaryk University in Brno. He then continued studies in studio tracks with Kvapil at the Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts, which he eventually completed in 1970. Gregor settled in Nový Jičín and worked as a composer. He married and had one son, Vit Gregor. He served as secretary of the creative branch of the Union of Czechoslovak Composers. Beginning in October 1959, he moved to Ostrava to work as head of the music broadcast station for Ostrava Czech Radio. In 1968 the arrival of Warsaw Pact troops disrupted his work at the radio station, and in 1972 Gregor was banned from publishing. In 1976 he moved to Prague, where he continued working as a composer. As a composer, Gregor was initially heavily influenced by 20th cen

Christoph Willibald von Gluck

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Ancestry#

Gluck’s earliest known ancestor is his great-grandfather, Simon Gluckh von Rockenzahn, whose name is recorded in the marriage contract (1672) of his son, the forester Johann (Hans) Adam Gluck (c. 1649–1722) and grandfather of Christoph. ‘Rockenzahn’ is believed to be Rokycany, located in the central part of western Bohemia (about 70 km southwest of Prague and 16 km east of Pilsen). The family name Gluck (also spelled Gluckh, Klugh, Kluch, etc.) likely comes from the Czech word for boy (kluk). one of four sons of Hans Adam Gluck who became foresters or gamekeepers. Alexander served in a contingent of about 50 soldiers under Philipp Hyazinth von Lobkowitz, the son of Ferdinand August von Lobkowitz, during the War of Spanish Succession, and, according to Gluck family tradition, rose to the level of gunbearer to the great general of the imperial forces, Eugene of Savoy. In 1711 Alexander settled outside Berching as a forester and hunter in the service of the monastery Seligenporten, Plankstetten Abbey, and the mayors of Neumarkt in der Oberpfalz. He took the vacant position of hunter in Erasbach in 1711 or 1712 (his predecessor had been found shot in the forest). About Gluck’s mother, Maria Walburga, almost nothing is known, including her surname, but she probably grew up in the same area as she was named after Saint Walburga, the sister of Saint Willibald, the first bishop of nearby Eichstätt.

Ctirad Kohoutek

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Ctirad Kohoutek (18 March 1929 in Zábřeh, Czechoslovakia – 19 September 2011 in Brno, Czech Republic) was a contemporary Czech composer, music theorist, and pedagogue. Life In 1948–1949 he studied composition, musical theory and conducting under the famous composers Vilém Petrželka, Jan Šoupal, and Jaroslav Kvapil at the Brno Conservatory, later at the Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Brno. In 1963, he attended the Summer School of Music in Dartington, he attended also courses of Pierre Boulez and György Ligeti in Darmstadt (1965). He worked as a teacher at the JAMU in Brno. Since 1980 he was appointed the director of the Czech Philharmonic. He is the brother of astronomer Luboš Kohoutek, who named the minor planet he discovered in 1975, 2375 Radek in his honor. Selected works ;Stage * O Kohoutkovi a Slepičce (The Cockerel and the Little Hen), Short Opera for children’s soloists, children’s choir and instrumental ensemble (1988–1989); libretto by Vladimír Šefl ;Orchestral * Festivalová předehra (Festival Overture) (1955–1956) * Velký přelom (Great Turning Point), Symphony (1960–1962) * Symfonické tance (Symphonic Dances) (1961) * Sinfonietta (1962–1963) * Preludia (P

Eduard Nápravník

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Eduard Francevič Nápravník (; 24 August 1839 – 23 November 1916) was a Czech conductor and composer. Nápravník settled in Russian Empire and is best known for his leading role in Russian musical life as the principal conductor of the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg for many decades. In that capacity, he conducted the premieres of many operas by Russian composers, including those by Mussorgsky, Tchaikovsky and Rimsky-Korsakov. Biography Nápravník was born in Býšť, Bohemia, in 1839. His studies of music were precariously uneven as a child, being the son of a poor teacher. Orphaned in 1853 at the age of 14, he first worked as a local church organist. In 1854 he entered the Prague Organ School, where he studied under Jan Bedřich Kittl and others, eventually becoming an assistant teacher as Kittl’s generosity allowed him to continue his studies. In 1861, he worked in Russia for the first time as conductor of the private orchestra of Prince Yusupov in St. Petersburg. Nápravník became organist and assistant conductor at the Imperial theatres in 1863, second conductor in 1867, and chief conductor, succeeding Liadov, in 1869, holding the post until his death. He led the first

Elena Petrová

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Elena Petrová, née Krupková (9 November 1929 – 10 April 2002) was a Czech composer. She was born in Modrý Kameň, and studied piano with Karel Hoffmeister and composition with Jan Kapr and Miloslav Istvan at the Janáček Academy of Music. After completing her studies, she taught music theory at the Charles University in Prague. Works Petrová composed for orchestra, chamber ensemble, stage and opera performance, choral and vocal works, and incidental music for ballets, television and radio. Selected works include: ;Stage * Slavík a růže (The Nightingale and the Rose), Ballet after Oscar Wilde (1969) * Podivuhodná raketa (The Remarkable Rocket), Ballet after Oscar Wilde (1970) * Slunečnice (Sunflower), Ballet after Ovid (1973) * Kdyby se slunce nevrátilo (Should the Sun Not Return), a six-act opera after Si le soleil ne revenait pas… by Charles Ferdinand Ramuz (1982–1983) ;Orchestral * Symphony No. 1 (1968) * Slavnostní předehra (Festive Ouverture) (1975) * Symphony No. 2 (1976) * Smutecní hudba (Mourning Music; Trauermusik) (1981) * Passacaglia (1982) * Slavnostní hudba (Festive Music) (1982) * Symphony No. 3 (1990) * Longing Odysseus ;Chamber music * Eklogy (Eclogues) for bass clar

František Domažlický

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František Domažlický (13 May 1913 – 29 October 1997) was a Czech composer. He was born František Tausig in Prague. He was sent to Theresienstadt but survived. Selected works ;Orchestral * Serenade in D for string orchestra, Op. 16 (1954) * Habanera (1955) * Suite, Op. 26 (1959–1960) * Divertimento, Op. 29 (1962) * Symphony (1962) * Prskavky (Squibs), Suite for string orchestra, Op. 30 (1963) * Ouvertura piccola, Op. 42 (1970) * Suita danza for string orchestra, Op. 52 (1982); also for 4 saxophones and brass quintet, or 2 accordions (or 2 violins) and piano * Malá taneční suita (Little Dance Suite) for small chamber orchestra, Op. 57 (1965) * Serenata da camera for string orchestra, Op. 64 (1987) * Encore, Op. 74 (1991) * Petriana Overture, arrangement for string orchestra (1993) ;Concertante * Concerto for oboe and string orchestra, Op. 25 (1958) * Concerto No. 1 for violin and orchestra, Op. 28 (1961) * Concerto for trombone and orchestra, Op. 35 (1964) * Concerto for viola and orchestra, Op. 36 (1965–1966) * Jaro rytíře d’Artagnana (The Spring of the Knight d’Artagnan), Symphonic Picture for cello and orchestra, Op. 40 (1968) * Concerto for horn and orchestra, Op. 43 (1971) * Con

František Drdla

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František Alois Drdla (Germanised as Franz Drdla; 28 November 1868 – 3 September 1944) was a Czech concert violinist and composer of light music. Biography Drdla was born in 1868 in Žďár nad Sázavou in Moravia, Austria-Hungary (now the Czech Republic). He studied violin and composition first at the Prague Conservatory and later at the Vienna Conservatory where his teachers were Joseph Hellmesberger Jr. for violin, Anton Bruckner for music theory and Franz Krenn for composition. However, Drdla’s music shows none of his teachers’ influences. From 1890 to 1893 he played violin in the orchestra of the Vienna Court Opera, and from 1894 to 1899 he pursued his career as the director and concertmaster of the Theater an der Wien. By then a well-known concert violinist, Drdla toured throughout Europe (1899–1905) and later the United States (1923–1925). Drdla enjoyed a good reputation as a violinist with a technically refined tone. In 1927 he received an honorary title from the President of Austria. Drdla died in Bad Gastein, Austria on 3 September 1944. Although he composed three operettas, a violin concerto, several orchestral works and two piano trios, international fame came to Drdla as a

František Gregor Emmert

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František Gregor Emmert (19 May 1940 – 17 April 2015) was a Czech composer of classical and incidental music. Biography Emmert’s ancestors came from the north of Bavaria, in the area around Weiden, Waldmünchen, and Ippesheim. Their history is documented in the local books until the beginning of the 17th century. Gregor Emmert, father of the composer, was born in Bavaria, and the Emmert family moved to Bohemia after World War I. Emmert was born in Mstišov, today a part of Dubí near Teplice in North Bohemia. In 1954, he went to study in Prague. He graduated from High School of Music Education and went on to take classes at the Prague Conservatory in piano, under Lev Esch, and composition, privately under Jan Zdeněk Bartoš. Later he continued his composition studies at the Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts (JAMU) in Brno, under Jan Kapr and Miloslav Ištvan. After his graduation in 1975, he started to teach composition at JAMU himself. As a Catholic, Emmert was never a member of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. He represented an alternative to the “Compositional School of Brno” (rationally and numerically composed music by Miloslav Ištvan and Alois Piňos), and many lat

František Kmoch

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František Kmoch (1 August 1848 – 30 April 1912) was a Czech composer and conductor. Life and career František Kmoch was born in Zásmuky near Kolín, Bohemia. His father was a tailor and a clarinetist who performed folk music. As a child, František learned to play the violin, and by the age of 10 he was already beginning to compose small pieces. In 1868 he was studying at the Teachers College in Praha, and by 1869 he had become a teacher in Suchdol. In addition to his occupation as a teacher, he zealously performed in several ensembles, continued to develop himself as a conductor, and composed. In 1873 he was excluded from further assignment as an instructor, allegedly because he had neglected his teaching duties, preferring instead to appear with performing ensembles at balls. It has been suggested, however, that the dismissal was a political decision, since Kmoch did not conceal his sympathies for the Czech nationalistic athletic Sokol movement. In 1868 he became conductor of the Sokol Wind Orchestra in Kolín. During the 1873 Gymnastics Festival in Prague the Orchestra played a prominent role in the opening ceremony, and visitors who attended the event warmly received the wind orch

František Škroup

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František Jan Škroup (; 3 June 1801 – 7 February 1862) was a Czech composer and conductor. His brother Jan Nepomuk Škroup was also a successful composer and his father, Dominik Škroup, and other brother Ignác Škroup were lesser known composers. He is the author of the melody for the Czech national anthem “Kde domov můj?”. Biography Škroup was born on 3 June 1801 in Osice near Hradec Králové in Bohemia. At the age of eleven he moved to Prague where he supported himself as a choir boy and flautist. He continued his schooling at one of the most important Czech national revival movement centres, Hradec Králové, where he was a choirboy at the cathedral. While there he studied with the local choirmaster and composer Franz Volkert. He later moved back to Prague to study at the university. He became a fairly successful opera and singspiel composer producing more than a dozen stage works. Among Škroup’s part-time jobs was organist at the “Temple of the Israelite Society for Regulated Worship,” known since the late nineteen-forties as the “Spanish synagogue.” His last position was as the musical director of the German opera in Dutch Rotterdam. He died in Rotterdam on 7 February 18 and, as a

František Xaver Pokorný

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František Xaver Pokorný (20 December 1729, Stříbro – 2 July 1794, Regensburg) was a Czech composer and violinist of the classical period. Life and career František Xaver Pokorný was born on 20 December 1729 in Mies (now Stříbro). While young, he left his hometown for Regensburg where he studied violin playing with Joseph Riepel. In 1750 he went to Wallerstein, where he played violin in the Oettingen-Wallerstein court orchestra. In 1753 he went to Mannheim where he further studied with Johann Stamitz and Ignaz Holzbauer among others. After the death of Philip Charles Domenic Oettingen-Wallerstein in 1766 he asked for permission to leave the court for three to four years. He spent the last part of his life in the orchestra of Karl Anselm, 4th Prince of Thurn and Taxis, again in Regensburg. Nearly 150 symphonies are attributed to him, but his authorship is disputed for more than fifty of these, as after his death his surname was erased from his works and replaced by names of other authors by Theodor von Schacht, intendant of the Regensburg orchestra. Furthermore, many works for wind instruments, tens of solo concertos including 45 for harpsichord and 3 for two horns are attributed to

Franz Benda

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Franz Benda (; c. 22 November 1709 – 7 March 1786) was a Czech violinist and composer. He was active in the Kingdom of Prussia and worked for much of his life at the court of Frederick the Great. Life Benda was baptised on 22 November 1709. He was born in Benátky nad Jizerou in Bohemia, the son of Jan Jiří Benda. His brother was the composer Georg Benda. Many of Benda’s offspring (Maria Carolina Wolf (1742–1820), Friedrich Benda (1745–1814), Karl Hermann Heinrich Benda (1748–1836), Juliane Reichardt (1752–1783)) and his granddaughter (Louise Reichardt (1779–1826)) were also composers. Benda wrote his autobiography in 1763: it not only gives a detailed account of his own life, but also a valuable record of the lives of other musicians whom he encountered during his career. In his youth Benda was a chorister in Prague and afterward in the Chapel Royal at Dresden. At the same time he began to study the violin, and soon joined a company of strolling musicians who attended fetes, fairs, etc. At eighteen years of age Benda abandoned this wandering life and returned to Prague, going to Vienna, where he pursued his study of the violin under Johann Gottlieb Graun, a pupil of Tartini. After

Georg Druschetzky

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Georg Druschetzky (born Jiří Družecký; 7 April 1745 – 21 June 1819) was a Czech composer, oboist and timpanist. Biography Druschetzky was born Jiří Družecký in Jemníky on 7 April 1745. He studied oboe with the noted oboist and composer Antonio Besozzi in Dresden. He then joined the band of an infantry regiment in Cheb (), with which he was later stationed (sequentially) in Vienna, Enns, Linz, and Branau. In 1777 he was certified as a drummer. In 1783 he moved to Vienna, where he became a member of the Tonkünstler-Sozietät. Three years later he was Kapellmeister for Anton Grassalkovič of Gyaraku and moved to Bratislava. It is believed he started writing music in the 1770s, most of it for his band. He also wrote chamber music and music for orchestra, including 27 Symphonies and Concertos for various instruments. A couple of his operas survive, but one suite of incidental music and a ballet are lost. Druschetzky is credited with one of the earliest uses of the BACH motif. Druschetzky died in Buda on 21 June 1819. Selected compositions ;Stage * Mechmet, Opera * Zemira, Opera * Perseus and Andromeda, Incidental music to the play * Inkle and Yariko, Ballet ;Orchestral * Concerto in B maj

Geraldine Mucha

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Geraldine Thomson Mucha (5 July 1917 – 12 October 2012) was a Scottish composer. She was born in London and studied at the Royal Academy of Music. She married the Czech writer Jiří Mucha, son of the painter Alphonse Mucha, and in 1945 moved to Prague. She lived there for the greater part of the next sixty years. Early life and education Geraldine Mucha was born in London on 5 July 1917. She was the only child of Marcus Thomson (sometimes spelled Thomsen) who came from Glasgow, and of Maisie Evans, a New Zealander. Marcus Thomson studied at the Royal Academy of Music (R.A.M.) in London between 1902 and 1906 and became a successful baritone singer. In 1920 he was appointed as a singing professor at the R.A.M. where he remained on the staff until the 1950s. Maisie Evans studied music in Leipzig and during the First World War appeared in a leading role in the long running musical success Chu Chin Chow (His Majesty’s Theatre, London, 1916) and later on in Nigel Playfair’s famous production of The Beggar’s Opera (Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith, 1920). Mucha herself showed an interest in music from a very early age and her father, impressed by her improvisations at the piano, taught her to re

Ilja Hurník

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Ilja Hurník (25 November 1922 – 7 September 2013) was a Czech composer and essayist. Biography Hurnik was born in Poruba, now part of Ostrava. He entered the Prague Conservatory, then went on to the Prague Academy of Arts, where he studied with Ilona Štěpánová-Kurzová, daughter of Vilém Kurz. His 1952 Sonata da camera, for flute, oboe, cello and harpsichord, has been recorded on Cedille Records. A 2008 Supraphon CD (SU 3944–2) contains two of Hurník’s instrumental compositions: the colorful ballet music Ondráš, written in 1951, and his Four Seasons Chamber Suite, written in 1952. Both are performed by the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra led by Karel Ančerl. He is father of Lukáš Hurník, brother-in-law of Petr Eben and uncle of Marek Eben. Ilja Hurník died in Prague on 7 September 2013 at the age of 90. Selected works ;Stage * Ondráš, Ballet, Silesian Folk Ballad (1949) * Dáma a lupiči (The Lady and the Robbers; Die Dame und die Räuber), Comic Opera in 4 acts (1966); libretto by the composer loosely based on the film The Ladykillers * Mudrci a bloudi (Wisemen and Fools), Opera in 3 Scenes on Themes of Antiquity, the Middle Ages and Modern Times (1986); libretto by the composer * Diogen

Irena Kosíková

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Irena Kosíková is a Czech organist and composer. Irena Kosíková was born in Prague the daughter of the banned philosopher Karel Kosík and the literary historian Růžena Grebeníčková. She began her organ studies with Prof. Jan Hora, together with piano lessons given by Prof. Eliška Kleinová and Prof. Arnoštka Grünfeldová. Irena Kosíková studied organ performance (Prof. Jaroslava Potměšilová) and conducting (with Prof. Karel Fiala) at Ježek’s Conservatory. She was refused further studies for political reasons. She took private composition lessons with Prof. Miroslav Raichl. Finally after the Velvet Revolution she was accepted at the Janáček Academy of Music (JAMU) in Brno into the organ class of Prof. Alena Veselá and Prof. Kamila Klugarová. She graduated at the Academy of Music (HAMU) in Prague, under the guidance of Prof. Josef Popelka. Irena Kosíková now gives organ concerts and is also intensively composing. Her works have been performed in the Czech Republic, Algeria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Belgium, Bulgaria, France, Germany, Israel, Poland, Russia, Turkey, Sweden and the United Kingdom. As an organist she specialises in the interpretation of organ works written by Johann Sebast

Iva Bittová

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Iva Bittová (born 22 July 1958) is a Czech avant-garde violinist, singer, and composer. She began her career as an actor in the mid-1970s, appearing in several Czech feature films, but switched to playing violin and singing in the early 1980s. She started recording in 1986 and by 1990 her unique vocal and instrumental technique gained her international recognition. Since then, she has performed regularly throughout Europe, the United States and Japan, and has released over eight solo albums. In addition to her musical career, Bittová has continued acting and still occasionally appears in feature films. In 2003 she played the part of Zena in Želary, a film nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the 2004 Academy Awards. Biography Iva Bittová was born on 22 July 1958 in the town of Bruntál, Czech Silesia, in what was then Czechoslovakia. The second of three daughters, she grew up in a musical family where her father Koloman Bitto (), a famous musician of Hungarian–Romani origin from southern Slovakia, played guitar, trumpet and double bass in folk and classical ensembles, and her mother Lidmila Bittová (née Masařová) sang in professional vocal groups. As a child, Bittová took bal

Ivana Loudová

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Ivana Loudová (8 March 1941 – 25 July 2017) was a Czech composer who composed over a hundred orchestral, chamber, vocal and choral works. Early life and education Ivana Loudová was born on 8 March 1941 in Chlumec nad Cidlinou. Her mother taught her piano from a young age. When she attempted to make improvements to classical pieces, her mother disapproved, telling her “What’s given in the notes has to be played according to the notes. If you want it to be different, then write it yourself, separately”. From then Loudová began to write her own short piano pieces. In 1958, Loudová entered the Creative Youth Competition in Bratislava, where she got to the middle round of the competition. She played Beethoven’s Sonata Pathetique and her own composition Ten Variations on a Theme of My Own. When the jury rated her own piece higher than her piano performance, Loudová decided that she wanted to become a composer. Due to a scholarship from the French government, Loudová was able to intern at the Centre Bourdan in Paris and study under Olivier Messiaen and Andre Jolivet. In her choral works, she composed Vocal Symphony in 1965. However in her later choral works she focused on writing pieces f

Jakub Jan Ryba

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Jakub Šimon Jan Ryba (surname also Poisson, Peace, Ryballandini, Rybaville; 26 October 1765 – 8 April 1815) was a Czech teacher and composer of classical music. His most famous work is the Czech Christmas Mass (“Hey, Master!”; Česká mše vánoční, “Hej mistře!”). Life Ryba was born on 26 October 1765 in Přeštice near Plzeň. His father was a schoolteacher, which was a very poorly paid occupation at the time. In 1780 Ryba went to Prague, where he studied at the Piarist gymnasium. His teacher Cassianus Hanel taught him music. Ryba was a very good student and he soon started to compose. He dreamt of being a famous composer. In 1784 his father ordered him to work as a teacher in Nepomuk. Ryba reluctantly obeyed, but he was soon fired. After wandering for a few months, he received a message that his mother had died. After a long illness, he moved to Mníšek pod Brdy. Being popular among local inhabitants for performing music, he was quite happy there, but after some hesitation he accepted a schoolteacher position in Rožmitál pod Třemšínem. The school prospered under his supervision, but he had constant conflicts with the local pastor and council. His frequent requests for funds for repairs

Jan Dismas Zelenka

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Jan Dismas Zelenka (16 October 1679 – 23 December 1745) was a Czech composer and musician of the Baroque period. His music is admired for its harmonic inventiveness and mastery of counterpoint. Zelenka was raised in Central Bohemia, educated in Prague and Vienna, and spent his professional life in Dresden. The greatest success during his career was the performance of the extensive composition Sub olea pacis et palma virtutis in the presence of the Emperor Charles VI, shortly after his coronation as king of Bohemia in 1723. Life Early life Zelenka, baptised Jan Lukáš Zelenka, was born in Louňovice pod Blaníkem in Bohemia, a market town southeast of Prague. He was the eldest of eight children born to Marie Magdalena (née Hájek) and Jiří Zelenka. The middle name Dismas is probably his confirmation name. Zelenka’s father Jiří was a schoolmaster and organist in Louňovice, and was likely his first music teacher. Nothing more is known with certainty about Zelenka’s early years, except that he received his musical training at the Jesuit college Clementinum in Prague and that his instrument was the violone (bass viol). His earliest known work is the school drama Via laureta (ZWV 245), compo

Jan Hanuš (composer)

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Jan Hanuš (May 2, 1915 – July 30, 2004) was a prolific Czech composer of the 20th century. Almost every category of composition is represented among his works, many of which are overtly political, expressing anti-Nazi, anti-Fascist and anti-Communist sentiments. Biography Hanuš studied composition independently with Otakar Jeremiáš while attending school at the Prague Conservatory, where he graduated in 1940. He subsequently studied at a business school, and then worked both as editor and editor-in-chief of several major publishing houses, including F. A. Urbánek & Sons, and Panton (Müller 2001). As an editor he played an important role in overseeing the editions of the collected works of Antonín Dvořák and Zdeněk Fibich, both of whom he later emulated in his works , as well as the complete works of Leoš Janáček (Müller 2001). Hanuš’s early works were principally aimed at the passionate, the philosophic, and the patriotic, as exhibited in his opera The Flames. The first post-war decade witnessed lyricism near to national tradition, but since the late fifties a new tendency of dramaticism in his works arose and a musically expressive innovation, reaching as far as the combination of

Jan Kalivoda

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Jan Křtitel Václav Kalivoda (Johann Baptist Wenzel Kalliwoda in German; February 21, 1801 – December 3, 1866) was a composer, conductor and violinist of Bohemian birth. Life Kalivoda was born in Prague in 1801 and as early as 1811 started studying violin and composition at the Prague Conservatory. He made his debut as a violinist at the age of 14. Upon completion of his studies he became a member of the Prague Opera Orchestra. His diploma from the Conservatory read “Excellent player solo or in an orchestra…shows great talent in composition.” More prosperous tours as a violinist, for instance to Linz and Munich, followed. Kalivoda lived what appears to have been a stable, hardworking musical life. For more than 40 years, from 1822 to 1865, he held the post of conductor at the court of Prince Karl Egon II of Fürstenberg and his successor in Donaueschingen (where the Danube begins in the Black Forest). His duties there included not only the writing of and care for the music of the court and church, but also the management and conducting of a choir, and annual musical journeys for education. These manifold responsibilities may have foreshortened his life. In any case, he went into re

Jan Klusák

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Jan Klusák (born 18 April 1934 in Prague as Jan Porges) is a contemporary Czech composer, author of film, television and incidental music. Life Klusák was born to a Czech Jewish family, who owned a farm in Prosek, Prague. After he graduated from the gymnasium, he pursued his studies at the Prague Music Academy as a pupil of Jaroslav Řídký and Pavel Bořkovec (in 1953-57 ). Later he concentrated solely on composing. He has never worked directly with music groups or schools, Following the Velvet Revolution in 1989, he began to participate in public life again, and worked as a member and director of various cultural institutions in the Czech Republic. He was awarded a “Classic 1995” Award for his compositions and for his String Quartet No. 5 in particular. Since the 1960s he occasionally acted in films, such as A Report on the Party and the Guests (1966) or Valerie and Her Week of Wonder (1970). Selected works Compositions *Partita for viola solo (1954) *Concertino for flute, violin, viola and cello (1955) *Contrappunto fiorito for flute, English horn, clarinet, bassoon, violin, viola, cello and piano (1955–1956) *Eight Inventions for Various Instrumental Arrangement (1961–73) - his ke

Jan Václav Voříšek

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Jan Václav Hugo Voříšek (; ; 11 May 1791 – 19 November 1825) was a Czech composer, pianist and organist. Life Voříšek was born in the town of Vamberk, Bohemia, where his father was schoolmaster, choirmaster and organist. As a child prodigy, he started to perform publicly in Bohemian towns at the age of nine. His father taught him music, encouraged his playing the piano and helped him get a scholarship to attend the University of Prague, where he studied philosophy. He also had lessons in piano and composition from Václav Tomášek. He found it impossible to obtain sufficient work as a musician in Prague and in 1813, at the age of 22, moved to Vienna to study law, hoping to meet Beethoven. In Vienna Voříšek was able to greatly improve his piano technique under Johann Nepomuk Hummel, but once more failed to gain full-time employment as a musician. Although Voříšek was enthralled by the classical style of Mozart, he was more intrigued by the incipient romanticism of Beethoven. In 1814, as he was starting to compose, he did indeed meet Beethoven in Vienna. He also met other leading musicians there, including the composers Louis Spohr, Ignaz Moscheles, Hummel, and especially Franz Schuber

Jaroslav Krček

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Jaroslav Krček (born 22 April 1939) is a Czech radio producer, conductor, inventor of musical instruments and composer of classical and folk music. Biography Jaroslav Krček was born in Čtyři Dvory, today a part of České Budějovice in South Bohemian Region. He studied at the B. Jeremiáš School of Music in České Budějovice before studying composition with Miloslav Kabeláč and conducting with Bohumír Liška, both at Prague Conservatory. Krček was the musical director for Plzeň Radio and the music editor for the recording company Supraphon. He is the artistic leader and performer in the folklore group Chorea Bohemica (founded 1967), for which he has composed and adapted a number of songs and dances. a chamber ensemble specialising in Czech (Bohemian) Christmas songs, was created in 1975 by Krček as an offspring of Chorea Bohemica. Some of Krček’s music is inspired by early Czech music, medieval and Renaissance songs, 16th century hymn books and baroque music. Also interested in folk music of the 18th and 19th centuries, Krček has arranged several hundred folksongs and folk dances. Raab: an electronic opera Raab (aka Raab The Harlot) or Nevěstka Raab (The Prostitute Raab) is one of Krček

Jiří Bárta

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Jiří Bárta (19 June 1935 – 4 January 2012) was a Czech pianist and composer. Biography Jiří Bárta was born in Šumice, Uherské Hradiště District. In his youth, he studied piano with organist and composer Emil Hába (1900–1982). He attended the Brno Conservatory from 1954 to 1958 studying piano with František Schäfer and music composition with František Suchý. He continued to study composition at the Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts under Vilém Petrželka and Theodor Schaefer, graduating in 1962 with his Concerto for Orchestra. Far more influential for Bárta were his post-graduate studies with Miloslav Ištvan and Ctirad Kohoutek at the Janáček Academy. These courses exposed him to the Second Viennese School, Bartók and other 20th-century classics, experimental and electronic music. Bárta was a long-time professor of music theory and composition at the Brno Conservatory. His pupils include Alexander Müller, Karel Škarka and Jaroslav Kopecký. For his compositions, Bárta received the Union of Czech Composers and Concert Artists Award (1986) for Concerto da camera for piano and string orchestra, Czech Music Fund Award (1990) for Reliéfy, and the Czech Music Fund Prize (1991) fo

Jiří Gemrot

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Jiří Gemrot (born 15 April 1957 in Prague) is a Czech composer, radio executive, and a record producer. Since 1990 he has been director in chief of Czech Radio in Prague. As a composer, his music has been performed by all of the Czech Republic’s major orchestras. Gemrot studied at the Prague Conservatory from 1972 to 1976 where he was a pupil of Ema Doležalová and Jan Zdeněk Bartoš. He then entered the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague where he studied under Jiří Pauer through 1981. From 1982 to 1986 he was a music director for Czech Radio and since 1986 he has been a record producer for Panton Records. He has also worked as a music director for Czechoslovak Television. His best known composition internationally is his work for chorus and orchestra Psalm 146 (1992). Selected works ;Orchestra * Pocty (Hommages) (1983) * Tance a reflexe (Dances and Reflections) (1987) * Sentence (Maxims) for 15 stringed instruments (1986) * Tři adagia (Three Adagios) (1989) * Americká předehra (American Overture) (1996) * Sympohony No. 1 for chamber orchestra (2007) * Sympohony No. 2 for symphonic orchestra (2012-13) ;Concertante * Concerto for cello and orchestra (1984) * Concerto for violin and

Jiří Hudec (composer)

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Jiří Hudec (31 August 1923 – 28 July 1996) was a Czech composer, conductor, arranger and organist. Life Hudec was born in Brno, Moravia, where he studied organ at the State Conservatory under F. Michálek. In addition, he studied composing with Vilém Petrželka and conducting with Antonín Balatka. From 1944 to 1946, he also studied the piano privately under Ludvík Kundera. Selected compositions ;Orchestral * Drei Stilisierte Polkas im Volkston (1969) ;Wind orchestra * Fox, Polka for 4 clarinets and wind orchestra (1971) * Dupák, Czech Dance (1973) * Pestrá paleta (A Wide Variety), Overture (1973) * Lyrické intermezzo (Lyrical Intermezzo) (1982) * Česká předehra (Czech Overture) * Drei Schnapsgläser * Moravské intermezzo (Moravian Intermezzo) ;Concertante * Triangolo: Polka-Groteske for triangle and orchestra (1969) * Uspávanka pro Martinku (Lullaby for Martinek) for viola and orchestra (1980) * Burleska for double bass and orchestra (1981) * Ein Verliebter Timpanist: Polka-Groteske for timpani and orchestra ;Chamber music * 4 Duettini for oboe (or trumpet) and bassoon (or trombone) (1988) * 4 Miniatures for wind trio * Rapsodia per Quattro for 3 clarinets and bass clarinet (or bassoo

Jiří Teml

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Jiří Teml (born 24 June 1935) is a Czech composer and radio producer. Born in Vimperk, Teml studied music theory and composition with Bohumil Dušek and Jiří Jaroch during the 1960s and early 1970s while working as an economist. His first major success as a composer came with his Fantasia appassionata for organ which took third prize at the 1972 Prague Spring Festival. In 1976, he became the head of music and a radio producer at Plzeň Radio. He left in 1980 to join the staff of Czech Radio 3 in Prague, where he worked as a producer of programs of classical music for over 20 years. A prolific composer, Teml’s output includes several symphonies, concertos, song cycles, choral works, children’s operas, chamber music, art songs, and works for solo organ and piano. His writing displays an influence of Czech folk music and for many years, he has collaborated with the Plzeň Radio folk ensemble. Selected works ;Orchestral * Suita giocosa for chamber orchestra (1973) * Symphony No.1 “Lidé a prameny” (“People and Sources”) for string orchestra, harp and timpani (1976, revised 1999) * Tři promenády (3 Promenades) (1983) * Concerto Grosso “Pocta Händlovi” (“Hommage à Händel”) for chamber orches

Johann Baptist Neruda

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Johann Baptist Georg Neruda (, c. 1708 – c. 1780) was a Czech classical composer, violinist and cellist. Life Neruda’s dates of birth and death are only approximations (1708 according to the Grove Dictionary, other sources list 1707 or 1710 ). He was born in Rosice in Bohemia (today the Czech Republic), but it is unclear in which Rosice (either in Rosice near Chrudim or in today’s part of Pardubice) to a well-respected musical family. After spending his earlier years gaining a good reputation as a violinist and conductor in Prague and German lands, Neruda became Konzertmeister of the Dresden court orchestra. He died in Dresden around 1780. His sons Antonín and Ludvík were also members of Staatskapelle Dresden. Organist Josef Neruda was his great-grandson. Cellist Franz Xaver Neruda was his great-great-grandson. Violinists Wilma Neruda and Maria Neruda were his great-great-granddaughters. Works His compositional output includes eighteen symphonies, fourteen instrumental concertos (including a trumpet and a bassoon concerto), sonatas, sacred works and an opera Les Troqueurs. One of the composer’s most significant works is the Concerto in E-flat for Trumpet and Strings written for Joh

Johann Baptist Wanhal

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Johann Baptist Wanhal (12 May 1739 – 20 August 1813) was a Czech composer of the Classical period. He was born in Nechanice, Bohemia, and died in Vienna. His music was well respected by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Joseph Haydn, Ludwig van Beethoven and Franz Schubert. He was an accomplished instrumentalist as well; a proficient organist, he also played the violin and cello. Name Wanhal and at least one of his publishers used the spelling Waṅhal, the dot being an archaic form of the modern háček. Other attested variants include Wanhall, Vanhal and Van Hall. The modern Czech form Jan Křtitel Vaňhal was introduced in the 20th century. Biography Birth and youth in Bohemia: 1739–1760/61 Wanhal was born in Nechanice, Bohemia, into serfdom in a Czech peasant family. He received his first musical training from his family and local musicians, the organist Anton Erban being one of his most prized mentors, and excelled at violin and organ at an early age. From these humble beginnings, he was able to earn a living as a village organist and choirmaster. He was also taught German from an early age, as this was required for someone wishing to make a career in music within the Habsburg empire. Journe

Johann Caspar Ferdinand Fischer

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Johann Caspar Ferdinand Fischer (some authorities use the spelling Johann Kaspar Ferdinand Fischer) (1656 27 August 1746) was a German Baroque composer. Johann Nikolaus Forkel ranked Fischer as one of the best composers for keyboard of his day; however, partly due to the rarity of surviving copies of his music, his music is rarely heard today. Life Fischer seems to have been of Bohemian origin, possibly born at Schönfeld, but details about his life are sketchy. Fischer was baptized and spent his youth in Schlackenwerth, north-west Bohemia. The first record of his existence is found in the mid-1690s: by 1695 he was Kapellmeister to Ludwig Wilhelm of Baden, and he may have remained with the court until his death in Rastatt. Works Much of Fischer’s music shows the influence of the French Baroque style, exemplified by Jean Baptiste Lully, and he was responsible for bringing the French influence to German music. Fischer’s harpsichord suites updated the standard Froberger model (Allemande - Courante - Sarabande - Gigue); he was also one of the first composers to apply the principles of the orchestral suite to the harpsichord, replacing the standard French ouverture with an unmeasured pre

Johann Stamitz

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Johann Wenzel Anton Stamitz (; 18 June 1717 – 27 March 1757) was a Czech composer and violinist. Stamitz is considered the founding father of the Mannheim school, a composition style that his two surviving sons, Carl and Anton Stamitz, continued. His music is stylistically transitional between the Baroque and Classical periods and he is recognised for many innovations. Life Stamitz was born in Deutschbrod, Bohemia (now Havlíčkův Brod, Czech Republic), into a family that came from Marburg (now Maribor, Slovenia). Stamitz spent the academic year 1734–1735 at the University of Prague. After only one year, at the likely age of seventeen he left the university to pursue a career as a violin virtuoso. His activities during the six-year period between his departure from the university in 1735 and his appointment in the German city of Mannheim around 1741, are not known in detail and historical accounts of his life contain many presumptions or approximations. He was appointed by the Mannheim court in 1741 or 1742, likely at the age of twenty-four. His engagement there most likely resulted from contacts made during the Bohemian campaign and coronation of Charles VII of Bavaria, a close ally

Josef Mysliveček

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Josef Mysliveček (9 March 1737 – 4 February 1781) was a Czech composer. He contributed to the formation of late eighteenth-century classicism in music. Mysliveček provided his younger friend Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart with significant compositional models in the genres of symphony, Italian serious opera, and violin concerto; both Wolfgang and his father Leopold Mozart considered him an intimate friend from the time of their first meetings in Bologna in 1770 until he betrayed their trust over the promise of an operatic commission for Wolfgang to be arranged with the management of the Teatro San Carlo in Naples. His closeness to the Mozart family resulted in frequent references to him in the Mozart correspondence. Biography Mysliveček was born in Prague, one of twin sons of a prosperous mill owner, and studied philosophy at Charles-Ferdinand University before following in the footsteps of his father. No documentation exists to support claims that he was actually born in Horní Šárka, a rural district to the north and west of Prague in the early eighteenth century. He achieved the rank of master miller in 1761 but gave up the family profession in order to pursue musical studies. In Prague

Karel Berman

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Karel Berman (14 April 1919 in Jindřichův Hradec, Czechoslovakia – 11 August 1995 in Prague, Czech Republic) was a Jewish Czech opera singer, composer, opera director, and translator. Life After extensive musical education, Karel Berman started his career as a bass singer of opera in Opava. In 1944 he composed Suite Terezin in three movements (‘Terezin’, ‘Horror’, and ‘Alone’); a work which musicologist Bret Web described as “a rare in situ tone portrait of life in a Nazi camp”. Later he was also imprisoned in Kaufering and Auschwitz. He taught at the Prague Conservatory from 1961 to 1971, and from 1964 at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. Works * 1944 Poupata (“Buds”) Bass-baritone songs and piano **Majové ráno (Eva Nonfriedová) **Co se děje při probuzení (Kamil Bednář) **Děti si hrají (Josef Hora) **Před usnutím č. 1 (František Halas) **Velikonoční (František Halas) * 1938 - 1945 Reminiscences Suite Piano (first published in 2000) *Terezín Suite Piano *Broučci (“Glow-worms” - after the children’s book by Jan Karafiát) Soprano and piano (later made world-famous by Jiří Trnka as a cartoon) Recordings *Historical recording opera arias, conducted František Dyk Notes Reference

Karel Husa

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Karel Husa (August 7, 1921 – December 14, 2016) was a Czech-born classical composer and conductor, winner of the 1969 Pulitzer Prize for Music and 1993 University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition. In 1954, he emigrated to the United States and became an American citizen in 1959. Overview Husa learned to play the violin and the piano in early childhood. After passing his final examination at high school, he enrolled in the Prague Conservatory in 1941, where he studied with Jaroslav Řídký, and attended courses in conducting led by Metod Doležil and Pavel Dědeček. After the end of the Second World War, Husa was admitted to the graduate school of the Prague Academy, where he attended courses led by Řídký and graduated in 1947. He then continued composition and conducting studies in Paris. In 1947, he studied with Arthur Honegger and Nadia Boulanger. He studied conducting at the École Normale de Musique de Paris and at the Conservatoire de Paris. His conducting teachers included Jean Fournet, Eugène Bigot and André Cluytens. He subsequently divided his career between composing and conducting. Husa’s String Quartet No. 1 received its premiere in June 1950, and won him

Karel Janovický

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Karel Janovický (18 February 1930 – 9 January 2024) was a Czech composer, pianist, BBC producer and administrator who lived in the United Kingdom from 1950. He was one of the youngest of the group of European émigré composers who came to live and work in Britain during the 1930s and 1940s to avoid persecution at home. Education and career Janovický was born in Plzeň as Bohuš František Šimsa. He was the son of Bohuslav Šimsa, a baritone soloist at the Plzeň Opera. Growing up under the German occupation, he studied piano from an early age and later composition with Josef Bartovský (1884–1964). In 1949 he was unsuccessful in applying to study at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (HAMU) for political reasons. (The Czech coup of February 1948 had resulted in Communist Party control over the Czech Government). So in October of that year he left with his future wife Sylva Maiwaldová for Germany, arriving a year later in England. Once there he continued his studies: first at the Surrey College of Music, Fitznells Manor in Ewell under Percy Turnbull; then at The Royal College of Music where he completed a Master of Music degree; and also privately with Matyas Seiber (composition) and

Ladislav Kubík

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Ladislav Kubík (26 August 1946 – 27 October 2017) was a Czech-American composer. His style is associated with other post-war Eastern European composers, such as Krzysztof Penderecki and Witold Lutosławski. He graduated from the Music and Dance Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, receiving his Master’s Degree in 1970 and the title “Aspirante”, a degree considered equivalent to the Doctor of Musical Arts. He previously taught at the Prague Conservatory, Charles University in Prague, and the University of South Florida. He served as Professor of Composition at the Florida State University College of Music in Tallahassee beginning in the 1990–91 academic year. Teachers: Emil Hlobil, Karel Janacek, Jiri Pauer. Prizes and honors *Resident at the American Academy in Rome. *UNESCO International Rostrum of Composers Prize in Paris for Lament of a Warrior’s Wife (1974) *UNESCO International Rostrum of Composers Prize in Paris for Concerto No.1 for Piano and Orchestra (1978) *Intervision Prize *1st Prize in the International Franz Kafka Composition Competition for Der Weg (1993) *1st Prize in the U.S. NACWPI Composition Contest for Two Episodes for Bass Clarinet, Piano, and P

Lubor Bárta

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Lubor Bárta (8 August 1928 – 5 November 1972 in Prague) was a Czech composer. Life and career Bárta was born on 8 August 1928 in Lubná. He studied musicology and aesthetics from 1946 to 1948 at Charles University in Prague and was a pupil of Jaroslav Řídký at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague until 1952. While he was still a student, he composed his first chamber works: Piano Variations, Three Polka Studies, Violin Sonata, Divertimento for Wind Quintet and String Quartet. His early compositions were influenced by Stravinsky and Bartók, but he gradually came into his own compositional style, especially apparent in his instrumental works. From 1952 to 1955 he was an artistic leader of the ensemble Proud. He subsequently lived as a teacher and freelance composer in Prague. He composed three symphonies, concerti, string quartets, piano pieces, sonatas and other chamber music. Bárta died on 5 November 1972 in Prague, at the age of 44. Selected works ; Orchestral * Symphony No.1 (1955) * Concerto for chamber orchestra (1956) * (Dramatic Suite) (1958) * (From Eastern Bohemia), Symphonic suite (1960) * , Suite for chamber orchestra (1964) :# :# :# :# * Symphony No.2 (1969) * for str

Luboš Fišer

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Luboš Fišer (30 September 1935 – 22 June 1999) was a Czech composer, born in Prague. He was known both for his soundtracks and chamber music. From 1952 to 1956 he studied composition at the Prague Conservatory as a pupil of Emil Hlobil. From 1956 he studied at the AMU in Prague. His first publicly performed compositions were Four Pieces for Violin and Piano (1954). Selected compositions ;Orchestra & Wind Ensemble * Patnáct listů podle Dürerovy Apokalypsy (Fifteen Prints after Dürer’s Apocalypse) (1965) * Double (1969) * Lament for chamber orchestra (1971) * Report for wind ensemble (1971) * Labyrinth (1977) * Serenády pro Salzburg (Serenades for Salzburg) for chamber orchestra (1979) * Meridián (1980) * Sonata for orchestra (1998) ;Concertante * Concerto da camera for piano and orchestra (two versions, 1964 with full orchestra, 1970 with wind) * Concerto for piano and orchestra (1979) * Romance for violin and orchestra (1980) * Concerto for two pianos and orchestra (1983) * Concerto for violin and orchestra (1998) * Sonata per Leonardo for guitar and orchestra * Pastorale per Giuseppe Tartini for guitar and orchestra ;Chamber * Dialogue for trumpet and organ (1996) * Impromptu for

Luboš Sluka

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Luboš Sluka (born September 13, 1928, in Opočno) is a Czech contemporary composer. Life and career Lubos Sluka was admitted to Prague Conservatory where he completed his studies in three subjects - percussion, conducting and composition. In 1951, Sluka was chosen as Arthur Honegger’s student, as well as George Auric’s assistant. However, his stay in Paris has been cancelled due to political reasons. He graduated at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague in composition with Jaroslav Řídký and Pavel Borkovec, film music with Václav Trojan in 1959. From 1962 to 1963, he was employed as the program editor in Czech Television, from 1963 till 1969 he’d worked in the music publishing company Panton. In February 1992 was voted the chairman of the Society of composers and in January 1995 the chairman of the whole Association of musical artists and scientists of the Czech Republic. Sluka’s work is very complex and diverse (more than 350 compositions). He had also paid a great heed to vocal and vocal-symphonic compositions (8 song cycles, 5 cantatas), film and television productions (70 full-length films, 30 television productions, 3 musicals and 5 TV serials), as well as to orchestral musi

Marek Kopelent

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Marek Kopelent (; 28 April 193212 March 2023) was a Czech composer, music editor and academic teacher, who is considered to have been at the forefront of the “New Music” movement, and was one of the most-published Czech composers of the second half of the 20th century. After studies in Prague, he worked as a music editor. In 1959 he became interested in European avantgarde music and incorporated its developments in his style. He received international recognition when his String Quartet No. 3 was performed at festivals throughout Europe. He co-founded and directed a contemporary music ensemble in Prague, Musica Viva Pragensis, and composed chamber music for them. He studied further for one year in West Berlin on a scholarship by Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst. When he returned, politics had changed to censorship of contemporary music; he lost his job, and his music was banned. For 15 years, he worked as an accompanist at a music school, and composed pieces for foreign commissions that he could not hear being performed. In 1989, he was able to return, and was appointed professor of composition at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague. He was chairman of the Czech section of th

Marta Jiráčková

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Marta Jirácková (born 22 March 1932) is a Czech composer. Biography Marta Jiráčková was born in Kladno. She studied with Emil Hlobil at the Prague Conservatory of Music, and after graduating in 1959, took a job in Czechoslovak Radio as a music editor. She studied harmony and composition with Alois Hába from 1962 until 1964, and took a break from composition when she married conductor Václav Jiráček. After her husband died in an accident, she returned to study and composition in the 1970s in Brno with Ctirad Kohoutek and Alois Piňos at the Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts. Her composition Loď bláznů (The Ship of Fools) was awarded the 1992 Prize of the Czech Music Fund. Works Jiráčková has composed more than forty works, including vocal music, chamber music, symphonies, ballet, and music for radio and television. Selected works include: Orchestral works: *Sláva Vorlová’s Confession, symphonic sketch with solo trumpet and soprano. Op. 8 (1973) *Nanda Devi, Symphony No. 1, with children’s and female chorus and tower bells, Op. 25 (1979) *Ave Seikilos, composition in one movement for strings and percussion, Op. 31 (1983) *The Butterfly Effect, composition for violoncello so

Martin Smolka

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Martin Smolka (born 11 August 1959 in Prague) is a contemporary Czech composer of classical music. Works ;1983 * Slzy (Tears) ;1985-1988 : Hudba hudbička (Music Sweet Music) for ensemble. ;1988 * Music for Retuned Instruments ;1989 * Zvonění (Ringing) for solo percussion. * Nocturne ;1990 * L’Orch pour l’orch; ;1990-1992 * Netopýr (The Flying Dog); ;1992 * Rain, a Window, Roofs, Chimneys, Pigeons and so… and Railway-Bridges, too ;1993 * Trzy motywy pastoralne (Three pastoral motifs). ;1993-1995 * Rent a Ricercar ;1996 * Euforium; * Three pieces for retuned orchestra. ;1996-1997 * : Lullaby ;1998 * 8 pieces for guitar quartet. * Autumn Thoughts for ensemble. ;1999 * Lieder ohne Worte und Passacaglia. * Nešť for orchestra. * Like Those Nicéan Barks of Yore for trombone and life electronics. ;2000 * Blue Note * Walden, the Distiller of Celestial Dews * Remix, Redream, Reflight; * Houby a nebe (Mushrooms and Heaven), Czech text Petr Pavel Fiala and Martin Smolka. ;2001 * Geigenlieder, German text Christian Morgenstern and Bertolt Brecht; ;2001-2003 * Nagano - Opera, libretto Jaroslav Dušek and Martin Smolka. * Observing the Clouds ;2002 * Missa * Ach, mé milé c moll (Oh, my admired C

Milan Kymlicka

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Milan Kymlicka (Czech: Milan Kymlička; 15 May 1936 – 9 October 2008) was a Czech-Canadian arranger, composer and conductor. He was known for his composition of film and television scores, including those for the animated television series Rupert, Babar, Anatole, The Busy World of Richard Scarry and The Adventures of Paddington Bear and the live-action television series Lassie and Little Men. He received a Genie Award in 1996 for his work on Margaret’s Museum. Early life Kymlicka was born in Louny, Czechoslovakia. He earned degrees from the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague and the Prague Conservatory. At the latter institution he was a pupil of Emil Hlobil. Career Kymlicka began his work as a composer in his native country and by 1967, he had produced 20 film scores, a ballet, a cello concerto, several works for solo piano, a number of string quartets, and created the theme for an animated television series. After the Prague Spring in 1968, Kymlicka emigrated to Canada, where he settled in Toronto, Ontario. By the early 1970s, he was working as a studio arranger/conductor at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. In 1974, Kymlicka became a naturalized Canadian citizen. That year

Milan Zelenka

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Milan Zelenka (born 4 June 1939) is a Czech guitarist, composer and music arranger. Music career Zelenka was born in Czechoslovakia and studied guitar at the Prague Conservatory with Štěpán Urban. While a student, he took first place in music competitions in Moscow in 1957 and again in Vienna in 1959. After graduation, he conducted a career as a concert guitarist, appearing internationally. He also gives master classes. He is best known for arrangements of traditional Czech songs, but also commissions new works for performance. In recent years he has composed original works. From 1963 to 1981, Zelenka worked as professor at the Prague Conservatory. Notable students include Rudolf Dašek and Pavel Steidl. Zalenka married Czech composer Jana Obrovská and the couple had a son, Vilém (born 1987). Vilém Zelenka graduated from Czech Technical University and often plays in a guitar duo with his father. Discography Selected works include: *Moderní České Skladby Pro Kytaru (LP, Album, Mono), Supraphon (1970) *Antonio Vivaldi, Joseph Haydn, Fernando Carulli, Milan Zelenka - Koncerty Pro Kytaru A Orchestr, Supraphon (1973) *Kytarový Recitál Ze Skladeb J.S.Bacha, Supraphon (1978) *Jana Obrovská

Miloš Bok

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Miloš Bok (born 16 January 1968) is a Czech composer, conductor, pianist, organist, choirmaster and music educator. Life and career Miloš Bok was born on 16 January 1968 in Prague. He graduated in piano playing in 1988 at the Prague Conservatory under Jaromír Kříž and, shortly after, became pianist and composer Josef Páleníček’s last student at the Prague Academy of Music, where he studied until the latter’s death (1991). During his youth, he has won six prizes in various national and international piano competitions. Under the communist regime, he was prevented from studying conducting and composition. After the fall of the totalitarian regime, he has studied conducting under Mario Klemens, again at the Prague Conservatoire (1991–1993). Numerous important Czech orchestras and choirs have performed under Bok’s baton (the Prague Symphony Orchestra, the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Prague National Theatre Orchestra…). His work is documented on a whole series of recordings (over twenty-five CDs as of 2018 ), and he has been the subject and appeared in many programmes for the Czech Radio and the Czech Television. In 1998, together with several other musicians and artists, he

Miloslav Kabeláč

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Miloslav Kabeláč (1 August 1908 – 17 September 1979) was a Czech composer and conductor. Kabeláč belongs to the foremost Czech symphonists, whose work is sometimes compared with Antonín Dvořák’s and Bohuslav Martinů’s. In the communist period, his work was on the periphery of official attention and was performed sporadically and in a limited choice of compositions. Life Kabeláč was born in Prague. In 1928–31 he studied at the Prague Conservatory as a pupil of Karel Boleslav Jirák, simultaneously (in 1930–31) he was a pupil of Alois Hába. In 1932–54 Kabeláč was employed by Prague Radio. From 1957 to 1968 he worked as a teacher at the Prague Conservatory. During his life Kabeláč was active in Umělecká beseda, in the Federation of Czechoslovak Composers and other organisations. In the 1960s he tried to revive contacts with Western modern music and composers, but after the 1968 Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia he was silenced. His works were performed only abroad from then on. Works Miloslav Kabeláč belongs to the most distinguished Czech composers of the 20th century. He soon created a distinctive style for which the auspicious melody and harmony, the ingenious polyphony and the cons

Miroslav Srnka

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Miroslav Srnka (born 23 March 1975 in Prague) is a Czech composer. Early life Srnka studied musicology at Charles University Prague from 1993 to 1999 and composition with Milan Slavický at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague from 1998 to 2003. He continued his studies from 1995 to 1996 at Humboldt University of Berlin and in 2001 at the Conservatoire de Paris. He took composition master classes with Ivan Fedele in 2002 and Philippe Manoury in 2004, as well as a course at IRCAM in 2001. He was the composer in residence of the Theater & Orchester Heidelberg. Career His pieces were performed by Ensemble InterContemporain, Klangforum Wien, Ensemble Modern, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic, Prague Philharmonia and others, at festivals including Prague Spring, Ultraschall Berlin, Milano Musica, Printemps des Arts de Monte-Carlo and Wittener Tage für neue Kammermusik. His chamber opera Make No Noise premiered in June 2011 at the Munich Opera Festival, followed by a new production at the Bregenzer Festspiele in August 2016. In Dezember 2011, the Young Scene of the Semperoper in Dresden premiered his children’s ‘comic book opera’ Jakub Flügelbunt, commissioned by the

Oldřich František Korte

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Oldřich František Korte (26 April 1926; Šaľa, Slovakia – 10 September 2014; Prague) was a Czech composer, pianist, publicist and writer. From 1943 to 1949 he studied at the Prague Conservatory, as a pupil of F. Pícha. He was forced to interrupt his studies in 1944–45, when he was imprisoned in a concentration camp. Following the communist Victorious February in 1948 Korte was once more affected by the political situation in former Czechoslovakia. He was forced to find work out of the artistic professions. Nevertheless, he never gave up his musical and literary activities, and gradually became a respected composer and pianist. Korte cooperated with the important Czech experimental theatre Laterna Magika, whose director Alfréd Radok offered him the post of pianist. He toured four continents with the ensemble of Laterna Magika, and played in more than 3000 performances. Style Korte in his whole musical and literary output takes a non-conformist attitude; he is not a “composer of one style”, in whose compositions a strict sense of logic musical rules prevails. He is partly influenced by the works of Bohuslav Martinů and Albert Roussel. Selected works Music *Sinfonietta (1947) - influen

Otomar Kvěch

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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

Petr Eben

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Petr Eben (22 January 1929 – 24 October 2007) was a Czech composer of modern and contemporary classical music, and an organist and choirmaster. Life and career Born in Žamberk in northeastern Bohemia, Eben spent most of his childhood and early adolescence in Český Krumlov in southern Bohemia. There he studied piano, and later cello and organ. The years of World War II were especially difficult for the young man. Although Eben was raised as a Catholic, his father was a Jew and thus fell foul of the National Socialist occupiers of his homeland. In 1943, aged 14, Eben was captured and imprisoned by the Nazis in Buchenwald, remaining there for the duration of the war. After being released, he was admitted to the Prague Academy for Music, and there he studied piano with František Rauch and composition with Pavel Bořkovec. He graduated in 1954. Eben improvised and developed a cycle of organ movements in the years from 1991 to 2003 based on excerpts from John Comenius’ famous book, Labyrinth of the World and the Paradise of the Heart that became a published work in response to positive reception. His music has been widely performed and recorded since about 1980, with his popularity still

Petr Kotik

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Petr Kotik (surname originally Kotík) (born January 27, 1942, in Prague, Czech Republic) is a composer, conductor and flutist based in New York City. In Prague, he founded and directed Musica Viva Pragensis (1961–64) and the QUAX Ensemble (1966–69). He moved to the United States in 1969 at the invitation of Lukas Foss and Lejaren Hiller to join the Center for Creative and Performing Arts at the University at Buffalo. He has lived in New York City since 1983. Education Kotik entered a conservatory at the age of 14 and began composing in his late teens. He graduated from Prague Conservatory in 1961, the Vienna Music Academy in 1966, and AMU Prague in 1969. From 1960 to 1963, Kotik studied composition with composer Jan Rychlík in Prague. From 1963 to 1966 Kotik studied at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna with Karl Schieske, Hans Jelinek and Friedrich Cerha. In 1968 he performed electronic music with the Czech psychedelic rock band Rebels, that was formed in 1967 by Jiří Korn. Career Kotik is the director of the S.E.M. Ensemble, which he founded in 1970. Kotik has given performances as conductor and performer, aka the Orchestra of the S.E.M. Ensemble. Kotik has receiv

Petr Kroutil

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Petr Kroutil (born 31 January 1973 in Prague, Czechoslovakia) is a Czech musician and actor. He is a vocalist, composer, arranger, and bandleader who plays clarinet, flute, saxophone, and the bansuri. Education Kroutil began playing recorder at the age of six. By the age of nine, he had begun studying clarinet. For two years he lived in Nepal to study Indian bamboo flute at Kathmandu University. Career In 1991, at the age of eighteen, Kroutil became a member of the Original Prague Syncopated Orchestra. Kroutil gained fame in the Czech Republic. He recorded and performed the soundtrack for the mini-series. In 1996, Kroutil helped form the Prague Swing Orchestra, specializing in swing music of the 1940s. As lead soloist, singer, and emcee, he played at jazz festivals in Europe. The orchestra has performed concerts which were broadcast internationally on television. In 1997, he formed the modern jazz quintet Přátele Tichého Jazzu influenced by American jazz musicians Chet Baker, Stan Getz, and Gerry Mulligan. In 2002, Kroutil released the album Bhakti Junction in London with singer Renu Gidoomal. The British-Indian jazz fusion album included two compositions by Kroutil. He became a me

Petr Skoumal

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Petr Skoumal (7 March 1938 – 28 September 2014) was a Czech musician and composer. He is best known as a composer of music for films and theatre performances. Biography Petr Skoumal was born on 7 March 1938 in Prague to Aloys Skoumal and Hana Skoumalová, both notable translators from English. He learned to play the piano from childhood and also received lessons in London when his father worked there as a cultural attaché after World War II. Because he had a small finger span, he was not accepted to study piano at university. He studied conducting at the Prague Conservatory and then choir management at the Janáček Academy of Performing Arts in Brno. After his studies, he worked on stage music, especially at The Drama Club in Prague, where he was a director and musical dramaturg. In the 1960s, he began collaborating with the writer Jan Vodňanský there. Their parody performances were a great success. He died in the Military Hospital in Prague on 28 September 2014, aged 76. His funeral was held at the Strašnice Crematorium in Prague. Musical work Petr Skoumal is best known as a composer of film music. Among the films he has composed music for are Jára Cimrman Lying, Sleeping, Dissolved

Petr Wajsar

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Petr Wajsar (born 14 November 1977) is a Czech composer. His work has been performed by the Czech Philharmonic, the Berg Orchestra, and the Prague Symphony Orchestra. He is also known for composing the soundtrack for the 2024 video game expansion Factorio: Space Age.

Simon Bar Jona Madelka

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Simon Bar Jona Madelka or Šimon Bariona Oppollensis (before 1550 in Opole – c. 1598 in Plzeň) was a Czech composer. In addition to being a composer, he was also a member of the butcher’s guild in the Plzeň. Madelka published two music collections. Biography Madelka may have come from Opole, as suggested by the cognomen Oppolensis, preserved in the collection of his music. The surname Madelka was also quite common both in Silesia and Opole. He came to Western Bohemia probably in consequence of culmination of the reformation wave in Opole Region in the middle of the 16th century. Madelka was a Catholic, and his religion may have been the main reason for his changing residences. In 1575 he was entered to the register of the butcher’s guild in Plzeň, and in 1580 became a master butcher. In 1585 he became the member of the guild’s board of elders. He died probably during the epidemic of a plague that killed 1300 to 1600 citizens of Plzeň in 1598. His name appears in the manuscripts exclusively as Šimon Bariona; the other variants of his name, Bar Jona and Madelka figure only in his printed music. He is mentioned in various musical sources with other European composers such as Clemens no

Štěpán Rak

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Štěpán Rak (born 8 August 1945) is a Czech classical guitarist and composer of Ukrainian origin. He is well known for the technical innovations that he uses in his compositions. Biography Štěpán Rak was born as Štěpán Slivka in Prague to Cilja (Vasilina) Slivka (1924-1993). His mother escaped from Carpathian Ruthenia in 1941 after it was occupied by Hungary. She was imprisoned in USSR and joined Czechoslovak Army in 1944. Štěpán was adopted by Marie and Josef Rak in 1946 and his biological mother later returned to Ukraine. Rak first studied at a Fine Arts High School in Prague and continued with guitar studies at the Prague Conservatory until 1970. Later he studied composition at the Prague Academy of Arts. In 1973, his orchestral composition Hiroshima won a second prize at a Czechoslovak competition for young composers. From 1975 to 1980 he taught guitar at the Jyväskylä Conservatory in Finland. After his return to Czechoslovakia he taught at Prague Conservatory. Since 1982 he has been teaching guitar at Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. Rak speaks English, Russian, Finnish and German. Compositions Solo Guitar * Sonata per chitarra No. 1 (op. 1, No. 1) * Sonata per chitarra No

Svatopluk Havelka

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Svatopluk Havelka (born 2 May 1925 – 24 February 2009) was a Czech composer. Biography Svatopluk Havelka was born in the village of Vrbice in the North Moravian region of Czechoslovakia. He studied composition privately with Karel Boleslav Jirák from 1945 to 1947, while a student of musicology at the Faculty of Philosophy of Charles University under Josef Hutter and Antonín Sychra. Havelka subsequently became a member of the music department of Czechoslovak Radio in Ostrava. At the same time he was the founder and artistic director of the NOTA Ensemble (1949–1950). His wife was the actress Libuše Havelková, with whom he had a son, musician and actor Ondřej Havelka. Havelka died on 24 February 2009 in Prague. Selected list of works * The Rose of Wounds. Songs for a middle voice and piano (also for orchestra) to texts by Baroque poets, 1944, CHF, o PA 8’ * Night Music for orchestra, 1944, manuscript 20’ * Suite for Small Orchestra, 1947, manuscript 16’ * Symphony No. 1, 1956, SU, o Su 42’ * Four Music-dramatic Suites to texts of Moravian folk poetry for solo voice, chamber ensemble, reciter, voiceband and chamber orchestra - 1948, 1949, 1951 - manuscript each 30’ * Spring. Vocal Rhap

Sylvie Bodorová

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Sylvie Bodorová (born 31 December 1954, České Budějovice) is a Czech composer. During a career spanning from the late 1970s to the present day she has composed a large number of works for various instruments, both solo and orchestral pieces, and produced commissions for cities, festivals and organisations around the world. She was a founder (and only surviving) member of the Czech classical group Quattro, formed in 1996. Biography Bodorová studied composition at the Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts (JAMU) in Brno and later as a post-graduate at the Music and Dance Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. She continued her studies in Gdańsk and the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena (with Professor Franco Donatoni) and from 1987 she attended Professor Ton de Leeuw’s composition courses in Amsterdam. She taught at JAMU in Brno and, in the 1990s, at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, 4. “Neorem, nesejem” (I sow not and plough not) 5. “Zavej že, vetricok” (“Blow little breeze”), 6. “Prečo že ma” (“Why is that?) 7. “Opýtaj sa Baláža” (“Go ask Balaz”). *JA RA LAJ, 27 compositions for tenor, violin, viola, clarinet, harp, percussion and s

Tomáš Svoboda (composer)

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Tomáš Svoboda (December 6, 1939 – November 17, 2022) was a French-born Czech-American contemporary classical composer and pianist, whose debut took place in Prague, Czechoslovakia on September 7, 1957, with the world premiere of his Symphony No. 1 (Of Nature) with the FOK Prague Symphony conducted by Václav Smetáček. Svoboda’s catalog contains over 200 compositions, including six symphonies and five concerti. His music is performed worldwide and recordings of more than 50 works have now been released. Svoboda’s Piano Trios CD recording received a 2001 “Critics Choice Award” from the American Record Guide and his Marimba Concerto received recognition in a 2003 Grammy Award nomination for the Oregon Symphony. Works Selected recordings * Children’s Treasure Box, Vols. 1-4, for Piano, North Pacific Music (NPM LD 026), Recording by Tomas Svoboda. * Chamber Works, Vol. 1, With Clarinet, North Pacific Music (NPM LD 016), Recording by members of Oregon Festival of American Music & Tomas Svoboda. * Four Visions, Music for 1, 2 & 3 Pianos, North Pacific Music (NPM LD 013), Recording by Daniel Wiesner, David Svec & Tomas Svoboda. * Nine Etudes in Fugue Style, Vols. 1 & 2, for Piano, North Pac

Václav Nelhýbel

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Václav Nelhýbel (September 24, 1919 – March 22, 1996) was a Czech-American composer, mainly of works for student performers. Life and career Nelhýbel was born the youngest of five children in Polanka nad Odrou, Ostrava, Czechoslovakia. He received his early musical training in Prague, going to both Charles University in Prague and Prague Conservatory. In 1942 he went to Switzerland, where he studied at University of Fribourg; after 1947 he taught there. In 1957 he came to the United States, where he taught at several schools, including Lowell State College. He served as composer-in-residence at University of Scranton for several years until his death. The university’s Department of Performance Music continues to house his full collection of works. Some of his music is for wind instruments or concert band, and most of his published music is designed for student performers. He used non-functional modal writing, pandiatonicism, and motor rhythms extensively. He was an advocate of the use of a flute in F, sitting between (and notably aurally bridging) the standard (and far more common) C Flute and C Piccolo. Although such a flute is now commercially available from Kotato, he wrote of i

Václav Riedlbauch

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Václav Riedlbauch (1 April 1947 – 3 November 2017) was a Czech composer, pedagogue and manager. He was the Minister of Culture in the caretaker government of Jan Fischer (2009–2010). Musician Riedlbauch studied accordion with Josef Smetana and composition with Zdeňek Hůla at the Prague Conservatory from 1962 to 1968. He continued his studies at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague in the class of Václav Dobiáš. He was program director at the Prague Congress Centre, formerly the Palace of Culture, and director of the National Theatre in Prague and music publishing house Panton. From 2001, he was the Director General of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra. Riedlbauch was a professor of composition at the Faculty of Music, Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. Selected compositions ;Stage *Macbeth, Ballet for soloist, a group of dancers and large orchestra (1979–1982); written for the National Theatre Ballet in Prague ;Orchestral *Sonáta “Rožmberská” (The Rožmberk Sonata) for winds and percussion instruments (1971) *Symphony No. 1 (1972) *Symphony No. 2 s refrénem (With Refrain) (1973) *Smrtelná ronda (Deadly Rondos) (1975) *Povídka (The Story), Symphonic Narration (1983) *Vize (Visi

Vadim Petrov

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Vadim Petrov (24 May 1932 – 7 December 2020) was a Czech composer of Russian descent. Biography Petrov was a pianist and composer of classical and popular music. He stemmed from the family of a Russian emigrant of aristocratic origin (family Repnin), a family doctor, resident in Prague-Žižkov. At first, he attended a Russian high school in Prague district Pankrác, during which time he was preparing for his future piano and composition studies at the Music Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts (AMU), taking piano lessons with Berta Kabeláčová and music theory and composition lessons with Miloslav Kabeláč. At the Academy he was Jaroslav Řídký’s student from 1952 to 1956. His graduation composition was the symphonic poem The Vítkov Hill (Vítkov – the place of the decisive battle in 1420 near Prague). He worked in the Prague Municipal Education Centre, where he was in charge of the Folk Entertainment department. In the 1960s he founded the People’s Conservatory specialising in dance-music and jazz (now Jaroslav Ježek Conservatory and College), and became its first director. His granddaughter is model Linda Vojtová. Filmography # Tobogan (1989) # Sedmé nebe (1987) # Úsměv diabla (19

Vesna Cáceres

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Vesna Vaško (born 5 May 1971), known by the stage name Vesna Cáceres, is a Czech composer, singer, and accordionist. Background Vesna Vaško was born in Croatia in a Czech-Slovenian family. She has lived in Prague since 1990. Education She studied the accordion in Croatia. In 1990, she came to study musicology at Charles University in Prague. In addition to musicology, she studied singing at the Jaroslav Ježek Conservatory, sang in the vocal sextet Prestissimo with Big Band of Radio Prague. In 1993, she represented the Czech Republic in the World Youth Choir. , Nextera, 2004 * Aquarela do Brasil, Vesna, 2008 * Vzpomínky na Jadran, 2008 * Le bal des fleurs, Vesna, 2013 Theatre * Nepřerušená píseň (2004) * Tonka Šibenice (2004) – Divadlo v Řeznické * Manželské vraždění (2005) – Divadlo Na Jezerce * Zlomatka (2006) – Divadlo v Řeznické * Čtyři polohy a jedna Vesna (2006) – Klub Lávka * Krvavá svatba (2010) – Divadlo Rokoko References

Viktor Kalabis

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Viktor Kalabis (27 February 1923 – 28 September 2006) was a Czech composer, music editor and musicologist. He was the husband of harpsichordist Zuzana Růžičková. Life Born in Červený Kostelec, Kalabis was interested in music from a young age, but due to the Nazi occupation of Prague during the Second World War, he was unable to study music in Prague. After the end of the war, Kalabis studied at the Prague Conservatory and at the Academy of Music and Charles University. In 1952, Kalabis married Zuzana Růžičková, who became a famous harpsichord player. They both refused to join the Communist Party, which impeded the beginning of their music careers. Eventually, Kalabis got work in the children’s music section at Czechoslovak Radio, where he established the Concertino Praga competition for young musicians. In 1957, Manuel Rosenthal performed Kalabis’ Concert for violoncello op. 8 at the Orchestre de Paris at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, which brought Kalabis new opportunities. His works were commissioned, for example, by the Czech Philharmonic, the Dresden Philharmonic, Camerata Zurich, Josef Suk, The Suk Trio, János Starker, Maurice André, the Prague Spring Festival and others. Hi

Vilém Blodek

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Vilém Blodek, born Vilém František Plodek (3 October 1834 – 1 May 1874), was a Czech composer, flautist and pianist. Biography Blodek was born on 3 October 1834 in Prague, Bohemia, Austrian Empire into a poor family and was educated at a German Piarist school in Prague. After studying with Alexander Dreyschock (piano) and at the Prague Conservatory (1846–52) with Antonín Eiser (flute) and Johann Friedrich Kittl (composition), he became a music teacher in Lubycza, Galicia (1853–5). On returning to Prague, he worked as a concert pianist and music teacher and, briefly, as second conductor of the Prague Männergesangverein, for which he wrote a number of patriotic choruses. In 1860 he succeeded Anton Eiser as professor of flute at the conservatory, and, as a basis for teaching, he wrote his own flute tutor (1861). He was active as a writer of incidental music for the German and Czech theatres: from 1858 onwards he wrote music for 60 plays and collaborated with Bedřich Smetana on music for the tableaux for the 1864 Shakespeare celebrations. In 1865, Blodek married Marie Doudlebská, whom he had previously taught. In 1870, he became mentally ill, with this being ascribed to overwork, and s

Vilém Tauský

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Vilém Tauský CBE (20 July 1910 – 16 March 2004) was a Czech conductor and composer. From the advent of the Second World War, he lived and worked in the United Kingdom, and was one of a significant group of émigré composers and musicians who settled there. Life Vilém Tauský was born on 20 July 1910 in Přerov, Moravia, Austria-Hungary. He came from a musical family: his Viennese mother had sung Mozart at the Vienna State Opera under Gustav Mahler, and her cousin was the operetta composer Leo Fall. Tauský studied with Leoš Janáček and later became a repetiteur at the Brno Opera. His other teachers included Vilém Petrzelka (composition) and Zdeněk Chalabala (conducting). At the age of nineteen, he conducted Puccini’s Turandot in Brno on short notice in place of Chalabala, who had become ill. Tauský was of Jewish ancestry, and the rise of the Nazis forced him to move to France. He later volunteered for service with the Free Czech Army. He eventually reached the UK in 1940 after the fall of France, arriving with other soldiers on a Yugoslav coal ship to Newport, Monmouthshire. He served musical functions in the Czechoslovak Army in exile, as a military band conductor in France. Bohuslav

Vladimír Franz

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Vladimír Franz (born 25 May 1959 in Prague, Czechoslovakia), is a Czech composer, painter, university scholar and occasional journalist, poet and playwright. Since the mid-1980s, he has composed stage music for more than 150 theatre performances—for many of which he was awarded national-level prizes. He has also composed a symphony, several operas, oratorios, a musical, a ballet, film music, and music for documentaries and radio plays. His second main area of activities in the field of arts is represented by painting. Since 1991 he has been a lecturer at the Prague’s Faculty of Theatre. In 2012 he was also a registered candidate in the 2013 Czech presidential election. The attention of local and global media has been focused on him due to his extraordinarily extensive tattoos. Biography Franz was born in Prague. He studied at a gymnasium and later at the Faculty of Law of Charles University (1978–1982). During his studies, he took private lectures in painting, composition, art history and music history. After his studies, he did not enter legal practice, but instead spent the 1980s in a variety of jobs, including as a high school teacher. In 1981, he co-founded the theatre Kytka, a

Vlastimil Lejsek

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Vlastimil Lejsek (21 July 1927 – 12 March 2010 in Brno) was a Czech composer and pianist. Biography Lejsek was born on 21 July 1927 in Brno. He was the son of the Moravian choirmaster František Květoslav Lejsek. He studied at the Brno Conservatory and the Academies of Music in both Prague and Brno with František Schafer, Jan Erml and František Maxián. During his studies he received awards at many competitions, such as the International Smetana Competition (Prague) and Franz Liszt Competition (Budapest). With his wife, Věra Lejsková, he established a famous piano duo, collaborating with composers such as Milhaud, Britten, Lutoslawski and Shostakovich, and recording for the first time Dvořák’s 4-hand works and many more. As a solo pianist, he premiered many works of his colleagues, as well as of his own. The main body of his musical output consists music for piano duo (like Brazilian Dances, Dances of Masters, Inventions, Moravian Ballades) and piano solo (Preludes, Sonatella, Pianists and Horses, The Moon Suite). Besides being a composer and a performing and recording pianist, Lejsek also served at the music faculties of the Conservatory and Janáček Academy of Performing Arts in Brn

Wenzel Krumpholz

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Wenzel Krumpholz or Václav Krumpholz (1750 – May 2, 1817) was a Bohemia-born musician who played mandolin and violin. He studied the mandolin at an early age and became one of the most renowned performers on this instrument. At a later date he adopted the violin also, for in 1796 he was one of the first violins in the orchestra of the Court Opera, Vienna. Born in Zlonice, near Kladno, in Bohemia in the Holy Roman Empire, Krumpholz was the son of a bandmaster in a French regiment who lived in Paris during childhood, learning music from his father. His brother, Johann Baptist Krumpholz, was also a musician, a celebrated harpist and composer. Bone wrote that Krumpholz frequently played the mandolin to Beethoven and indicated that it influenced the composer to write music for the instrument. He mentioned research done by Dominco Artaria, who had bought a Skizzenbook, containing sketches of some of Beethoven’s music. Artaria stated in his Aittographische Skizze that Beethoven intended to write a sonata for mandolin and piano for Krumpholz. This composition is contained in Beethoven’s sketchbook (preserved as (No. 29,801) in the manuscript department of the British Museum) and it was fir

Zdeněk Lukáš

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Zdeněk Lukáš (21 August 1928 – 13 July 2007) was a Czech composer. He authored over 330 works. Biography Lukáš was born on 21 August 1928 in Prague. He graduated from a teachers’ college and worked as a teacher from 1953 to 1963. He was a musical editor and program director at the national broadcasting company in Plzeň and conducted the , a choir in Plzeň. He died on 13 July 2007 in Prague, at the age of 78. Selected works Opera * Ať žije mrtvý (Let the Dead Live), Op.52 (1967); 3 scenes; libretto by Jiří Hurt * O smutné princezně Upolíně (Upolína, the Sad Princess), Op.57 (1968); little children’s opera for radio; libretto by Kamil Bednář * Domácí karneval (The Local Carnival), Op.60 (1968); Chamber opera for radio (or television); libretto by Zdeněk Barborka * Planeta s tiše fialovou září (The Planet with the Light Purple Glow), Astronomical Opera, Op.141 (1979); libretto by Jiří Suchý * Falkenštejn, Op.197 (1984–1985); libretto by Dagmar Ledečová * Veta za vetu (Measure for Measure), Op.206 (1986); 2 acts (6 scenes); libretto by Dagmar Ledečová after William Shakespeare Orchestra * Pathetická předehra (Pathétique Overture), Op. 2 * Rej (Rondo), Op.3 * Matce (To Mother), Symphoni