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Karel Boleslav Jirak ranks among the leading representatives of modern Czech music even though he left Czechoslovakia in 1947 to take up a teaching post in the USA (Chicago Musical College of Roosevelt University), where he settled down for the rest of his life (1947- 1969).
Jirak was an exceptionally versatile personality ever since his youth. After graduating from a law faculty in 1913, he devoted himself entirely to composing and organizing the country\\\\\\\'s musical life. He was not only a brilliant composer but also an accomplished pedagogue (among his pupils at the Conservatoire in Prague were Jaroslav Jezek, Isa Krejci, Miloslav Kabelac, Klement Slavicky, and Frantisek Bartos). His private pupils were Svatopluk Havelka and Frantisek Kovaricek who both later became well-known composers and teachers. K.B.Jirak was also very succesful as a conductor and choirmaster (for a time he was the second conductor of the Czech Philharmonic and a frequent guest conducting many Czechoslovak and foreign symphony orchestras), organizer of musical life (he was a high-ranking official of the International Society for Contemporary Music) as well as a publicist (penning some 1,000 music reviews and specialized articles published in daily newspapers and musical journals alike). Between 1930 and 1945 Jirak was the director of the Czechoslovak Radio\\\\\\\'s musical broadcasting department. |