Jirák, Karel Boleslav (1891-1972)

Czech composer and conductor. He studied with Novák in Prague and was later influenced by Josef Bohuslav Foerster. He was professor of composition at Prague Conservatory from 1920 and head of music at Czech Radio 1930-1945. He was appointed as professor at Roosevelt College, Chicago, in 1949.

Works opera Apollonius of Tyana (later called Woman and the God, 1928); six symphonies (1915-68); piano concerto; seven string quartets (1915-60), string sextet; sonatas for violin and piano, viola and piano, and cello and piano; song-cycles Tragi-Comedy (Heine), Meditations, Brief Happiness, Three Songs of Home, Evening and the Soul; Suite in the Old Style for piano.