Jiří Kratochvíl

From 1945 to 1949 he studied clarinet with Milan Kostohryz at the Prague Conservatory. Afterwards, in the years 1949 to 1953, he continued his studies at the Music Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague under Vladimír Říha. In 1953 he was awarded third price in the Prague Spring competition.

He started paying serious attention to composing in 1940, in which year he started studying privately with V. Polívka. Between 1945 and 1949 he also studied musicology and aesthetics at the Philosophical Faculty of Charles University.

From 1949 to 1953 he was engaged by the Czechoslovak State Song and Dance Ensemble, from 1953 to 1959 by the Army Art Ensemble, and he also worked for the Union of Czech Composers as the secretary of the Concert Artists Department.

A substantial part of Kratochvíl’s professional career is represented also by his pedagogical activity. There have been several re-editions of his Clarinet Study Guide (Škola hry na klarinet), still widely used for nowadays. He taught clarinet at the Deyl Conservatory from 1962 to 1995, and since 1951 up to the present he has also been lecturing on the history of wind instruments and literature for wind instruments at the Music Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts.

In 1965 he founded, together with Milan Kostohryz, the Basset-Horn Trio that specializes in the music of the 18th century. Kratochvíl has revised a number of works by composers of that period. In his own production he focuses on compositions for clarinet either as a part of a chamber ensemble or accompanied by an orchestra. Some of his music has been performed under the baton of such conductors as Václav Neumann (the Sinfonietta for 11 wind instruments and 2 double-basses) or Vladimír Válek (the Concerto for clarinet).

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