composers

Pavel Novák

• The Year of a Bird

Pavel Novák was born in 1957. He lives in Brno, where he first played the oboe in the Opera Orchestra while also studying composition with Miloslav Ištvan, who considered Novák to be his star pupil. Increasingly, since the death of his teacher, he has fulfilled the prophecy of Ištvan, becoming the leading Moravian composer of his generation. Much of his music reflects his deeply held religious beliefs, in which sense he is akin to James MacMillan in his output.

He has written a large number of chamber works, several of which have been performed in Great Britain and abroad by The Schubert Ensemble. His Piano Trio (Lord, we seek the Song of the Chosen) and his Piano Quintet (Royal Funeral Procession on Iona) are Schubert Ensemble commissions and were first performed at the Cardiff and Brighton Festivals respectively. His large scale Second Symphony (St. John Passion) won the Janácek Foundation Prize in the Czech Republic in October 1998. Music for piano includes a cycle of 24 Preludes and Fugues based on the Bible written for pianist William Howard. He has also written five symphonies as well as works for chorus, voice, and for solo instruments.