Leoš Janácek

Leoš Janácek (baptised Leo Eugen Janácek; 3 July 1854 – 12 August 1928) was a Czech composer, musical theorist, folklorist, publicist and teacher. He was inspired by Moravian and other Slavic folk music to create an original, modern musical style.

Until 1895 he devoted himself mainly to folkloristic research. While his early musical output was influenced by contemporaries such as Antonín Dvorák, his later, mature works incorporate his earlier studies of national folk music in a modern, highly original synthesis, first evident in the opera Jenufa, which was premiered in 1904 in Brno. The success of Jenufa (often called the "Moravian national opera") at Prague in 1916 gave Janácek access to the world's great opera stages. Janácek's later works are his most celebrated. They include operas such as Káta Kabanová and The Cunning Little Vixen, the Sinfonietta, the Glagolitic Mass, the rhapsody Taras Bulba, two string quartets, and other chamber works. Along with Antonín Dvorák and Bedrich Smetana, he is considered one of the most important Czech composers.