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Petr Pokorny was brought up in a family of artists. Having passed his state matriculation at a grammar school in 1951, he studied piano at the Prague Conservatoire with Vaclav Holzknecht and later with Ilona Stepanova - Kurzova. Because of his family background Pokorny was barred from continuing his musical training at the university. He therefore enrolled at Charles University to study natural science, a subject that appeared to be admissible for people coming from his social class. He studied composition mostly in private with Emil Hradecky, Milos Nedbal, Zdenek Hula, and Pavel Borkovec. In the 1960s Petr Pokorny was known to be closely collaborating with the Musica Viva Pragensis ensemble, which frequently performed his own compositions. Furthermore, he was noted for evenings of music and poetry reading in which he would introduce promising young poets. This, however, came to an end after the politically eventful 1968-69 period. |