- Karel Boleslav Jirák
Karel Boleslav Jirák (Karel Bohuslav Jirák) (*
January 28 ,1891 inPrague ,Bohemia - †January 30 1972 inChicago ,Illinois ,USA ) was a Czechcomposer and conductor.Jirák was born in
Prague and became a pupil ofJosef Bohuslav Foerster andVítězslav Novák at theCharles University and at music academy in Prague .From 1915 to 1918 he was the
Kapellmeister at theHamburg Opera and worked from 1918 to 1919 as a conductor at the National Theatre inBrno andOstrava . From 1920 to 1930, he was a composition teacher at thePrague Conservatory , and principal conductor of the Czechoslovak Radio Orchestra until 1945.In 1947, he emigrated to the
USA , where from 1948 to 1967 a professor atRoosevelt University ,Chicago and in 1967 a composition teacher at theConservatory college inChicago . He remained in this position until 1971.Jirák's opera was "Apolonius z Tyany" (Apollonius of Tyana, 1912-1913), which was initially ignored by Prague's National Theatre and later accepted under the title "Žena a Bůh" (The woman and the god, 1936). He wrote six
symphonies and several symphonic variations. In 1952 he wrote a Symphonic Scherzo for volume. He also wrote manysuites andovertures , numerous pieces of chamber music, many preludes and a Suite for organ, a Requiem, choruses, and song cycles. He was a popular and renowned musical theorist.External links
* [http://www.musica.cz/comp/jirak.htm Extensive Biography]
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.