Karel Boleslav Jirák, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

Karel Boleslav Jirák

Czech conductor, music educator and composer

Date of Birth: 28-Jan-1891

Place of Birth: Prague, Czech Republic

Date of Death: 30-Jan-1972

Profession: composer, conductor, pedagogue, university teacher

Nationality: Czech Republic

Zodiac Sign: Aquarius

Karel Boleslav Jirák (né Karel Bohuslav Jirák; January 28, 1891, Prague, Bohemia - January 30, 1972, Chicago, Illinois, U.S.) was a Czechoslovak composer and conductor. Jirák became a pupil of Josef Bohuslav Foerster and Vítezslav Novák at the Charles University and at music academy in Prague.
From 1915-18 he was the Kapellmeister at the Hamburg Opera and worked from 1918 to 1919 as a conductor at the National Theatre in Brno and Ostrava.From 1920-30, he was a composition teacher at the Prague Conservatory, and principal conductor of the Czechoslovak Radio Orchestra until 1945.In 1947, he emigrated to the United States, where from 1948 to 1967 a professor at Roosevelt University, Chicago, and, in 1967, a composition teacher at the Conservatory college in Chicago.
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 Buh (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 many suites and overtures, 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.