Jan Zdeněk Bartoš

Czech composer Jan Zdeněk Bartoš first graduated from a business school. Later he studied violin in Hradec Králové and played in various orchestras. With his own musical ensemble, he was engaged by a French shipping company from Marseille and travelled around the world on their liners. Via Paris he returned to Czechoslovakia and completed his musical studies at the Praha Conservatory in Jaroslav Křička’s master class. During this time, he also played in the Praha Symphony Orchestra. After World War II, he became involved in the founding and development of youth orchestras. In 1956, he was appointed head of the music department of the Ministry of Education and in 1959 became the Editor-in-Chief of the state-owned Music Publishing House. At the same time until his death, he taught musical theory at the Praha Conservatory.

Bartoš’ wrote a variety of compositions: stage works (ballets, operas), seven symphonies, concertos for solo instrument (mostly violin) and orchestra, chamber music, piano sonatas, and vocal works (cantatas and songs). Since the 1960s, he also wrote a number of books on musical topics. His composition for the 1948 art competitions was the cantata Běžec míru (Runner of Peace, op. 47) for choir and orchestra, composed in the same year and based on a text by Miroslav Vaněk. The work premiered in 1949 in Praha.