Bezděk Jiří
- Year of Birth :
- 1961
Biography
The composer Jiri Bezdek learned to play the accordion at the Bedrich Smetana Public School of Arts in Plzen (during the seven-year's attendance, he won several prizes at the national rounds of the Public Schools of Arts' Competitions).
In 1975 he entered the Plzen Conservatoire, where he first attended Professor J. Vlach's accordion class and then he studied with E. Zommer and M. Mintal. In 1978, he advanced to an international accordion contest held at Klingenthal, Eastern Germany (was placed 7th) and further on to a contest of the World Accordion Organisation CMA held in Pula, Yugoslavia (placed 8th). His thorough study of accordion playing made Bezdek also intimately familiar with composition procedures of the music of the 20th century.
Since 1977, he has also been occupied with composition. He consulted his first compositional attempts with Jaromir Bazant, in 1983 was admitted to the department of composition at the Faculty of Music of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, to study composition with V. Riedlbauch. Even before that, first performances of several chamber compositions by Bezdek took place at the regular concerts organized by the then branch of the Czech Composers Union in Plzen and they had very good reviews. During the time at the college and after the graduation, he participated in several national and international composers' competitions. He was awarded a honourable mention for the First Piano Sonata at the Generace '87 composition contest held in Ostrava, and also received the third prize for his composition The Takes of the Break for two pianos inspired by the Prague Velvet Revolution's events (1990). Later in the same year, his Concerto for piano and orchestra won another honourable mention in the competition sponsored by the Czech Ministry of Culture and the same reward he obtained for Three Cubist Still Lives for flute, cello and harpsichord in the competition of West Bohemian composers.
The reflections on composing brought J. Bezdek to the study of musical theory at the Faculty of Music of the Academy which was allowed as a form of interdisciplinary study in the middle of the 1980s. In 1988, he completed both the courses. In result, he was awarded two master degrees by the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague in 1991. In 1990, he successfully competed for a position at the Department of Music Culture of the Faculty of Pedagogy at the West Bohemia University, and since then he is active there as a teacher of music theory, piano improvisation, history of the music of the 20th century and theory of interpretation as well as he conducts seminars in composition analyses. He endeavours to divide his activities into the areas of composition and music theory. His theoretical papers are primarily aimed at contemporary music or processes of composition. In the mid-nineties his interest in music pedagogy has been increased. He began his doctorate studies at the Department of musical education at the Faculty of Pedagogy of the Ostrava University. He was preparing a dissertation in Harmonisation of Tonal Melody under the guidance of Ilja Hurnik, and successfully completed his studies at the Faculty of Pedagogy of the Charles University in Prague on 22 Match 2000 and was awarded a doctorate degree (Ph.D.).
The compositions by Bezdek have been performed abroad many times, in particular at the author's half-night concerts in Vienna, Regensburg, Straubing), as well as at various international festivals and events (Vienna, Sophia, Chemnitz, Weimar, Munich, Regensburg, Rohr a.o.), and at the national festivals such as Contemporary Music Days in Prague, Young Podium in Karlovy Vary, Chamber Song Platform, Smetana's Music Days in Plzen a.o.. He involves himself particularly in maintaining contacts with institutions and musicians in German-speaking countries. He is a member of Gaudeamus Foundation, an international organisation of young musicians based in Amsterdam, collaborator of the Musical Institute in Regensburg (in 1997, he participated in the project of joint Czech-German composition Holy Spirit Song Variation for symphony orchestra by T. Veidl), as well as took part in the New Music Seminars in Vienna (won an Austrian scholarship in 1992). In 1997, his first composition was recorded on CD. Today, his compositions are available on 3CDs. He became repeatedly a member of repertory committee for the new music festivals 'Days of Contemporary Music' and \'Prague Premieres' in Prague, and at both of these festivals some of his compositions have been premiered.
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