Zbynek Vostrak

Zbyněk Vostřák (1920-1985) was a Czech composer and conductor associated with the New Music movement in Czechoslovakia. After early operas and ballets in a Romantic idiom, he moved to twelve-tone writing and later to instrumental concert works, and in the late 1960s and early 1970s he composed electronic music, sometimes combined with live players. Vostřák studied composition privately with Rudolf Karel and conducting with Pavel Dědeček, and he played in the Prague Radio Orchestra from 1939 to 1943. He later conducted for Czech radio and the National Theatre.