Ctirad Kohoutek was a contemporary Czech

Czech people

Czechs, or Czech people are a western Slavic people of Central Europe, living predominantly in the Czech Republic. Small populations of Czechs also live in Slovakia, Austria, the United States, the United Kingdom, Chile, Argentina, Canada, Germany, Russia and other countries...

 composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

, music

Music

Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...

 theorist, and pedagogue.

Life

In 1948–1949 he studied composition, musical theory and conducting under the famous composers Vilém Petrželka

Vilém Petrželka

Vilém Petrželka was a prominent Czech composer and conductor.Petrželka was a pupil of Leoš Janáček, Vítězslav Novák and Karel Hoffmeister...

, Jan Šoupal

Jan Soupal

Jan Šoupal was a Czech choirmaster, conductor and composer. He is notable particularly as arranger of folk songs for male choirs. Several musical schools are named in his honor in Moravia.-External links:*...

, and Jaroslav Kvapil

Jaroslav Kvapil (composer)

Jaroslav Kvapil was a Czech composer, teacher, conductor and pianist.Born in Fryšták, he studied with Josef Nešvera and worked as a chorister in Olomouc from 1902 to 1906. He then studied at the Brno School of Organists under Leoš Janáček, earning a diploma in 1909...

 at the Brno Conservatory

Brno Conservatory

The Brno Conservatory, also Brno Conservatoire , was established in Brno on 25 September 1919 by Moravian composer Leoš Janáček.- History :...

, later at the Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts

Janácek Academy of Music and Performing Arts

Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts is a university-level school in Brno in the Czech Republic.The Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts is one of two academies of music and the dramatic arts in the Czech Republic...

 in Brno

Brno

Brno by population and area is the second largest city in the Czech Republic, the largest Moravian city, and the historical capital city of the Margraviate of Moravia. Brno is the administrative centre of the South Moravian Region where it forms a separate district Brno-City District...

. In 1963, he attended the Summer School of Music in Dartington

Dartington

Dartington is a village in Devon, England. Its population is 1,917. It is located west of the River Dart, south of Dartington Hall and about two miles from Totnes...

, he attended also courses of Pierre Boulez

Pierre Boulez

Pierre Boulez is a French composer of contemporary classical music, a pianist, and a conductor.-Early years:Boulez was born in Montbrison, Loire, France. As a child he began piano lessons and demonstrated aptitude in both music and mathematics...

 and György Ligeti

György Ligeti

György Sándor Ligeti was a composer of contemporary classical music. Born in a Hungarian Jewish family in Transylvania, Romania, he briefly lived in Hungary before becoming an Austrian citizen.-Early life:...

 in Darmstadt

Darmstadt

Darmstadt is a city in the Bundesland of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Rhine Main Area.The sandy soils in the Darmstadt area, ill-suited for agriculture in times before industrial fertilisation, prevented any larger settlement from developing, until the city became the seat...

 (1965). He worked as a teacher at the JAMU in Brno. Since 1980 he was appointed the director of the Czech Philharmonic.