Ivana Loudová

Czech composer Ivana Loudová was born at Chlumec nad Cidlinou in north-eastern Bohemia on 8 March 1941. She studied at the Prague Conservatory and at the Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts in Prague, with Miloslav Kabeláč and Emil Hlobil, and later at the Centre Bourdan in Paris with Olivier Messiaen and André Jolivet.

She wrote choral and vocal music (including her 1965 Vocal Symphony and the Little Christmas Cantata for children), film/stage music, and chamber and orchestral works, plus music for the American Wind Symphony. Rhapsody in Black received an honourable mention in Mannheim, and her compositions won prizes at Italy's Guido d'Arezzo International Polyphonic Competition in 1978, 1980 and 1984.

From 1992 onwards, she taught composition at the Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts in Prague.

Recognition for her work included the Heidelberger Kunstpreis (1993), the Award of the Ministry of culture for contribution to the music world (2015) and the Award of the Protective Association (2017).

Ivana Loudová died in Prague on 25 July 2017, aged seventy-six, following a long illness.