Jaroslav Kvapil (composer)

Jaroslav Kvapil (21 April 1892 – 18 February 1958) 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.

As the choirmaster and conductor of the Brno Beseda (1919–47) he gave the world première of Janáček's Glagolitic Mass, and the Czech premières of Johann Sebastian Bach’s St Matthew Passion (1923), Arthur Honegger’s Judith (1933) and Karol Szymanowski’s Stabat mater (1937).

He taught at the School of Organists and at the Brno Conservatory, and he was appointed professor of composition at the academy in 1947.

His students included Hana Janků, Miloslav Ištvan, Ctirad Kohoutek, Čestmír Gregor and Jiří Matys.