DISCUSSION: John Dante Prevedini leads a discussion about Improvisation in the classical world and beyond, including contributions from David Arditti, James Lewitzke, James Ross and Steve Vasta.
VIDEO PODCAST: New Recordings - Find out about Adrian Williams, Andriy Lehki, African Pianism, Heinrich Schütz and Walter Arlen, and meet Stephen Sutton of Divine Art Recordings, conductor Kenneth Woods, composer Graham Williams and others.
Czech composer, conductor, instrument inventor and radio producer Jaroslav Krček was born in South Bohemia on 22 April 1939. He studied at the Prague Conservatory - composition with Miloslav Kabeláč and conducting with Bohumír Liška.
He worked as musical director for Plzeň Radio and as music editor for Supraphon.
He is the artistic leader of the folklore group Chorea Bohemica and its offshoot Musica Bohemica (specialising in Bohemian Christmas songs). He performs with the group and has written and adapted various songs and dances for them.
Some of Krček's music is inspired by early music. He has recorded over fifty albums of his own compositions and folk songs. He is known especially for the electronic opera (or electroacoustic oratorio) Raab The Harlot, based on the Fall of Jericho, and his work was banned by the communist regime and not performed in Czechoslovakia until after the Velvet Revolution.