GRAHAM, PETER (b. 1952)

Contemporary Czech composer, Peter Graham (born July 1, 1952) is a pseudonym for Jaroslav Št'astný-Pokorný from Brno, studied organ at the Brno Conservatory of Music. He studied composition under Alois Piños at the Janáček Academy of Performing Arts, also in Brno. Upon completion of his studies, he engaged in a variety of work giving him a broad range of experiences at the Music Conservatory, theater, radio (music director), Czech Music Fund, school music teaching and Czech TV. In 1999, he joined the music faculty at the Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts teaching the theory of composition.

 

Graham says of his own music that it "grows as does timber in a forest" without predetermined plans and goals. He is interested in creating music for itself and not for drawing interest to himself. "I am what I do," he says.

 

Several of his works have met with success at performances in Great Britain, Germany, Poland, Austria, Italy, Romania, Holland, Sweden, Great Britain, and the USA. In 1993, his chamber cantata, "Der Erst," gained him third prize in the Musica Judaica Festival’s internatlional competition in Prague for works on texts by Franz Kafka.